


Legends of a Goner

by PastelMess



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Blood, Brainwashing, Fear, Gore, Hallucinations, Hurt, Kidnapping, M/M, Mental Instability, Possession, Torture, pain and suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:32:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelMess/pseuds/PastelMess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being kidnapped by a strange cult set on destroying their lives and band name, Tyler and Josh undergo a series of life threatening events that test their sanity and friendship.</p>
<p>Something is wrong with Tyler, but Josh refuses to believe it.</p>
<p>Tyler is F I N E.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. HeavyDirtySøul

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there fam.
> 
> So this is inspired by the Blurryface album and The Youngblood Chronicles, along with my cruel and pain-inflicting imagination.
> 
> There will be 14 chapters, one for each song on the album. Together it tells a story.
> 
> Also a shoutout to my good friend Writing_Doodle. Without them, this idea may have never been created.

_I didn’t understand a thing you said_

 

Pain branded the back of his eyelids and rumbled throughout his entire body like he had been tied to the back of a bus and dragged down the highway.

The air was thick and humid despite being freezing cold, and it caused the hair on his arms to rise in their own halo of fear. He could hear the building settling every so often, wooden floorboards creaking and the wind whistling through broken glass.

When Tyler finally opened his eyes, he wished he could close them again and pretend it was all a dream. He was chained to an uncomfortable, metal chair, wrists rubbing raw more and more as he continued to pull up. He could feel blood dripping down the back of his neck and down his shirt; he could feel even more pooling from his nose to the floor below. The cross at the back of the chapel he was in mocked him as he looked up with a heavy breath. There would be no saviour for him. Tyler was doomed.

He couldn’t quite remember exactly what had happened that led him to this spot now. He did however, remember the baseball bat that had hit him in the side of the head. The dull throbbing on his right side was plenty proof of that.

Flashes of a concert venue, bright lights, cheers, smiles, disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared, and were replaced with pain.

Tires screeching, the clink of metal, and the crack of his own nose breaking were pounding in his head like the throbbing pulse of a heartbeat. He hoped Josh was safe, that Josh was somewhere far from here. He couldn’t remember if Josh had been with him. Tyler wanted to remember, _god_ did he want to remember, but nothing was coming to him. He wasn’t quite sure if it was because of all the pain trickling throughout his veins or because his mind was playing a cruel joke on him.

Why a chapel of all place?

The church had almost a ghostly atmosphere to it, the pews stripped of their once glossy oak to reveal nothing but rot. The floor was covered in dirt and debris, the tiles chipped and broken all the way to the heavy doors. Tyler shifted in his seat again, grunting at the clink of his handcuffs against the cool metal of his chair. He watched more blood drip to the floor below.

Tyler wondered if anyone realized he was gone. He wondered if anyone was coming to rescue him. Surely Josh had to have noticed he was gone, right? Unless Josh was right here with him, somewhere in this abandoned church.

He looked up at the cross once more with a heavy sigh. It was kind of ironic, really, that he had been kidnapped and put in a church. Something told him his captor wasn’t very religious.

Thunder boomed from outside, causing Tyler to jump a little. The air was frizzy, standing on edge like it often did before a rainstorm. The wind hissed as it squeezed through a shattered window, stirring a small pile of leaves in the corner of the chapel. He closed his eyes and pulled at the cuffs again.

Before Tyler even had time to develop a route of escape, the doors to the chapel were thrown open, banging against the already weak walls and bringing in a blast of wind that sent dirt spilling farther down the corridor between the pews. More stagnant air clouded around him as he watched three tall girls saunter into the room. They all had their dark hair pulled back into high ponytails, lips painted red and makeup so dark Tyler could barely see their eyes. The girl in front adjusted the collar of her leather jacket with a smack of her gum as she approached him with a feigned smile.

“Who are you?” he coughed out, irked with the raspiness in his voice. None of the girls answered. Instead, they begin to busy themselves, two of them leaving the church to bring in boxes as the third, the leader Tyler assumed, stared at him with her smirk. He yanked on his restraints again, emitting a small growl as they dug further into his wrists. “What do you want with me?”

She still did not reply, only turned around and reached for one of the boxes a follower had brought in. Inside were several pieces of weird equipment and a generator to which she promptly began setting up. The two others continued to bring in boxes until no more remained, and only then helped her finish. They ignored all of Tyler’s questions, all of his demands, all of his worries.

Until of course, they seemed to realize Tyler was in the room.

The leader grabbed Tyler by his jaw sharply, her artificial nails digging into his skin as he thrashed underneath her cold touch. She smiled again, gently rubbing one knuckle against the side of his cheek as he shivered violently.

With a simple wave of her hand one of her helpers handed her a small, square packet to which she tore open with her teeth and unfolded its contents with one single flick. Tyler struggled to pull away as she wiped down his face, the smell of alcohol burning his nostrils. The others busied themselves by strapping leather restraints over his midsection and forearms, making sure he wasn’t going to escape anytime soon.

The leader untangled some wires, pulling off the sticky part before harshly grabbing Tyler’s jaw once more so she could place one on both of his temples. He wiggled underneath her grip, despising the fact that she was stronger than him at this point. The two other girls only watched with their arms crossed, both tapping their feet impatiently.

“What are you going to do to me?” he whispered, feeling fear replace his pain. The leader slipped a monitor over his right index finger, running her tongue over her lips as it began beeping rapidly. Tyler realized that was his pulse, and it didn’t make him feel any better.

She dropped down into his lap, sighing happily as one hand slid to the back of his neck, fingers embedding themselves into his hair as the other continued to grip his jaw hard enough to leave a bruise. Tyler yanked on his cuffs frantically, ignoring the pain of the rubbing and instead focused on getting out. He wasn’t sure what they were going to do to him, but Tyler sure as hell didn’t want to be around to see the outcome of their science experiment.

She kissed him gingerly for a good minute before standing up and dusting off her hands like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He spat, disgusted with the three “amigos” standing in front of him.

The leader raised an eyebrow and pulled out her lipstick from her jacket pocket, smirking the whole time she applied it. Tyler continued to stare in disgust.

Then she pulled out a small remote with three simple switches. When the first one flipped on, he could hear the buzz of electricity that made his hair stand on end. The second one produced a small hum, and the third sent Tyler into hysterics.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He screamed as loud as he could, crying as his bones seemed to crack and pop underneath his skin and his blood seemed to boil. The girls continued to wear their masks of malice, only watching as Tyler continued to shriek and thrash like a patient from an insane asylum.

Tyler thought he had only lost consciousness, but in fact, he had been very, **_very_** wrong.

Because the girls watched him snarl, growl, and pull like some kind of wild animal, his veins a prominent dark as they bulged against his sickly skin and his heart monitor beeping at an dangerous rate. His irises trickled from brown into a sea of maroon.

Thunder shook the building as rain began falling from the sky, pounding hard against the weak foundation that was the church. With one last smile, the three left Tyler snarling, his presence turning the chapel into one of pure damnation.

 

_If I didn’t know better, I’d guess you’re already dead_


	2. Stressed Øut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters start to get longer after this one, and the plot thickens a little. So I guess... patience is a virtue.

_Wish we could turn back time to the good old’ days_

 

Josh felt like he had been punched repeatedly in the gut. His eyelids felt too heavy to open.

Josh could remember _everything_ that had happened. He and Tyler were leaving the concert venue when they had been ambushed. Josh had thought they wanted money, but he had been very, _very_ wrong.

There has been flashes of white hot pain, fuzzy stars circling his skull as he was knocked unconscious. He ~~thought~~ _knew_ Tyler was with him somewhere, but it definitely wasn't in this room.

When he did open his eyes, Josh was staring at a million reflections of himself. The entire room was a circle panelled in mirrors, and the room itself could barely hold Josh. He felt claustrophobic in it.

He stared at the zombie like version of himself, taking in his stringy faded hair, the black eye, and the blood encrusted in his hairline. With a sigh, he shifted and closed his eyes once more. Josh never had liked looking at himself in the mirror. Maybe somehow his captor knew this and put him in here as some kind of torture.

Josh felt like he was going to go mad sitting in here. Behind one of the panels had to be a door, but he couldn't figure out which one. He wondered if anyone would come to check up on him. If so, that was when he would try and make his escape. His first priority would be finding Tyler of course. Josh prayed Tyler was okay, that he wasn't as damaged and broken as the images Josh's mind was formulating out of fear.

His breathing was heavy as he pulled his knees to his chest and tried to stay calm. People would notice they were gone and then they would notify the police. Whoever kidnapped him and Tyler wouldn't get away with it. The two of them would be fine.

That was, if Josh didn't go insane first.

He felt like he sat in that room for hours with his eyes closed. Every single time he opened them they would immediately slam shut again in disgust and discomfort of seeing his broken form in the mirror. Josh rocked back and forth with his knees huddled to his chest, muttering prayers, random thoughts, and songs under his breath. If anyone saw him right now, they just might certify him as clinically insane. He was so _terrified_ of dying. Everybody knew about Tyler’s fear of the Unknown, but nobody ever asked Josh. And Josh was just as worse off as his best friend. He was even more terrified of what they could be doing to Tyler. Were they torturing him? Forcing him to do things he didn't want to do? Treating him like a goddamn animal?

God, he hoped not.

The rattling of a door handle interrupted his thoughts and Josh perked up, staring at himself in the mirror and praying it wasn't his imagination. Fortunately (but he wasn't sure for how long) the door opened and in came a girl with dark lipstick that contrasted with her platinum blonde hair. He stared at her in fear, trying not to forget what panel the door actually was behind.

Josh wanted to say something, but _god forbid_ his anxiety let him do that. So he only stared at her.

She didn’t say a word either as she knelt down, making him back up until he was pressed against the mirrors. His breathing was heavy.

The girl wasn’t done yet. On her hands and knees she crawled towards him seductively, letting out a desperate sigh as one hand brushed behind Josh’s neck and her lips were inches from his. He wanted to move, _god_ did he want to move, but he was frozen to the spot.

And suddenly, she was handcuffing his hands behind his back. With a grunt Josh struggled to get them off, but she had cuffed them so tight they were only rubbing raw against his wrists and surely cutting off his circulation. He felt like screaming.

The girl wasn’t done yet. She moved her hands gracefully, placing one on his shoulder and the other tightly around his jaw. Her knee slotted the V between Josh’s legs and he wiggled uncomfortably at the pain shooting throughout his body. She pushed closer, a smirk rising to her lips. Josh caught sight of the two of them in the mirror and felt his stomach churning. _This is wrong_ , he told himself as he continued to struggle. All Josh wanted to do was get out, not have some random psychotic girl kneeing him in the crotch.

Three seconds later she was kissing him harshly, Josh’s eyes squeezed shut and his nose scrunched in disgust as he tried to pull away. Her grip was strong, and her nails were digging into his jaw hard enough to break skin. Everytime he would pull at the cuffs she would push her knee farther, causing Josh to whimper under her lips. When she pushed her tongue into his mouth, he had an idea.

Josh kissed back.

She had a gun on her, and keys. A knife too, he was pretty sure. Josh knew this. If he could distract her, he could get out.

In surprise the girl lessened her grip, gasping into his mouth as he pushed just as hard as she was. _Come on,_ he thought, _just a little while longer._

“Undo these cuffs, so we can have some real fun,” he whispered huskily as she one of her hands moved down from his shoulder to slide under his shirt. Her fingers were cold against his stomach, causing him to involuntary shiver.

“Oh _baby_ ,” she exclaimed, sliding the key out of her pocket. “I _knew_ you weren’t like the rest of them.”

“I’m the real deal,” Josh replied, trying his best to fake a douchebag persona. This had to work, or he was screwed.

When the cuffs clattered to the ground, Josh wasted no time trying to rub circulation into his wrists and instead went right to her waist. Their mouths were attached in milliseconds, her hand sliding back up his shirt.

His own hands were moving around her body, trying to find something to help him out. When they slid over the gun tucked into the waistband of her pants, Josh let out a small gasp.

“You horny _slut_ ,” she giggled, fingers fumbling with the button on his jeans. Josh took this opportunity to pull the gun out of her waistband and use the butt to knock her upside the head as hard as he could.

She dropped to the ground like a stack of bricks, a small trail of blood dripping to the floor below. Josh let the gun slip from his fingers, his breathing heavy as he stared as his shaking hands. He caught sight of his reflection; with his wide, dark eyes and wild mess of dirtied hair, Josh really did look like a madman. Not to mention the row of purplish half-crescents she had left down his jaw did nothing to help his image.

Tears began sliding down his face as the realization of what he had done came over him. Josh never thought he was going to have to look at a gun as much as hold one. And he had just used it to knock a frickin’ _girl_ unconscious. His hands raised over his mouth as he collapsed back to the ground and pulled his knees to his chest.

This was not okay. This was definitely **_not_** okay.

But he had to find Tyler. He had to make sure his friend was okay and then they had to get far far _far_ away from this place. They had to go find the police, go to a hospital, and put all this trauma behind them.

So he took the keys and pocket knife off the girl and cautiously opened the door, sighing in relief to be out of that claustrophobic room. The hallway he stepped foot in was long and winding, with drab grey walls and dark, flickering lights. His footsteps echoed down the hallway and Josh prayed nobody could hear them as emphatic as he could.

He was careful as he traveled, his anxiety and nervousness fueling his caution as his eyes flickered in forty different directions. So far, nobody seemed to be out and about. He seemed to be the only one.

Which made him nervous.

What if they had taken Tyler somewhere else? What if all of them were gathered around Tyler, laughing and pointing as he got tortured? Josh couldn’t bear to think about that. He just couldn’t.

So he kept walking, further and further down the dark hallway with its flickering lights. That was, until he heard boisterous footsteps and devilish laughter that were not his own, and Josh was forced to pull open the closest door and shut behind him. He slammed a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his heavy breathing as two people walked by. They talked in hushed whispers, shadows sliding under the door like the perfect incognito. Josh closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, sighing in relief when their voices faded away.

His foot kicked something as he shifted in the tiny closet, causing his eyebrows to furrow in curiosity. He moved his hand against the wall, fumbling for a lightswitch. What he found caused him to almost collapse to the ground.

The closet was filled with copy after copy of their albums - dating all the way back to 2009. Probably hundreds of vinyls and cds were stacked on the floor. Where the hell had they gotten so many copies of Regional at Best and Self Titled? Josh wanted to puke.

That wasn’t the only thing. There were posters, t-shirts, even _jewelry._ The thing that freaked Josh out the most were the giant x’s scratched across his and Tyler’s faces on the posters. He swallowed nervously. Whoever kidnapped them had a pretty good idea of who they were, and something told him they didn’t feel too kindly about them.

Josh kept moving. He had to find Tyler, had to get the hell out of dodge. These people were insane, and he wanted to be far away.

He raised a hand to his head with a grimace. This was too much.

  
_When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out_


	3. Ride

_ I think about the end just way too much _

 

Josh’s body was pressed up against the rough paneling of church, his hands cupped over his ears.

No matter what he did, he could still hear Tyler’s screams. There wasn’t anything he  _ could  _ do; if Josh wandered into that chapel he would be just as worse off. He had to be strong enough to help Tyler during their escape.

Upon leaving the long twisting hallways, he found a heavy door that led to the outside. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, with this abandoned and rotting church being the center of attention for the area. He thought that the building of winding hallways had to be new. It really wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.

But he hadn’t expected to find Tyler screaming. It was so _loud_ , and nothing like the screaming Tyler did on stage. Josh could feel rage circulating through his body. He wanted to **_destroy_** the people that were hurting his best friend.

The doors were pulled open, and Tyler was shoved into the mud, his face planting into the soft Earth as he pulled at his restraints behind his back. Josh moved his hands from his ears to his mouth, his heart beating a mile a minute. A girl with long dark hair pulled him up to his knees by his hair, shoving him once more further away from the church. Tyler groaned in pain, earning him another shove into the murky mixture. It had stopped raining, but that didn’t mean things were dry yet.

Tyler’s face was a mess. His nose was definitely broken, and purple lined his jaw and swelled his right eye shut. Blood dripped down the side of his head, matted in his hairline, and stained his shirt; it mixed with all the mud to paint a picture of agony. He was  _ way _ worse off than Josh was.

Two more girls appeared behind the dark haired one, smirks on their faces as the dark haired one flicked out a knife and sliced through Tyler’s shirt into one stroke. She yanked it off of him roughly, mouth never changing its shape the entire time. Josh almost gasped through his fingers.

Tyler’s body was littered in bruises.

The dark haired girl raised her closed fist to her face, observing her bloodied knuckles like they were the most interesting thing in the entire world. And before Tyler could comprehend her next move, she swung, nailing him directly in the jaw. He let out a yell, whipping his head back around to spit out blood. He looked at her in fury, his hands still fumbling behind his back. Josh wondered what on earth he was going to do to get Tyler away from these crazy people. How was he-

A million degrees of white hot pain coursed through his body as a metal baseball bat hit him in the back of his shins, sending him spiralling to the mud. He felt it burning in his mouth as the person yanked his arms behind his back and cuffed them just as tightly as the blonde had before. 

Tyler watched sadly as Josh was thrown next to him like he weighed nothing. The dark haired girl was joined by a redhead twirling the baseball bat in her fingers, a grin on her face as she stuck it in the mud and pulled out her pocket knife instead. She pulled Josh’s shirt off as well, tearing the ragged shreds off his body before kindly dragging the tip of her knife across his collarbone. He let out a whimper of pain, earning another punch in the gut. Tyler yelled angrily.

“Leave him alone!”

Tyler was punched in the face once more. He spat blood again, that same look of fury back on his face. Josh growled as he rubbed his wrists raw.

“Don’t touch him!”

The redhead bent down to Josh’s level, her eyes shimmering with nothing but evil. Her knuckle brushed his cheek gently before she stood back up, cracking all her fingers before frowning.  Josh watched her closely as she moved behind him, hands working fast to pull a gag around his mouth. He choked as she pulled it tighter, completely making it unable to form coherent sentences. Tyler continued to yell at them, but the dark haired girl feigned a yawn, her minions grinning behind her. Josh watched nervously as the redhead bent back down right in front of him.

“Little drummer boys do not get to speak,” she said calmly, her voice deeper and more offkey than Josh had been expecting. His screams were muffled by the fabric as she pressed her thumb down on the cut made by her knife, blood oozing farther down his chest. He fidgeted under her cold fingers as she scooped up mud and smeared it across his chest delicately. 

“You’re going to need this for later,” the redhead whispered. Then she stood up, adjusted the collar of her jacket and with a wave of her hand walked back towards the building with its twisting hallways like nothing had even happened. The brunette gestured to the two girls behind her, which immediately went to work making the boys lives a living hell. Josh couldn’t even see straight his body hurt so bad.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t over. The two girls, under the command of the leader, pulled rough, burlap sacks over the top of their heads, pulling the drawstrings so tight the fabric itched the back of their necks and were extremely close to cutting off circulation. Josh could hear the three of them giggling, disgusted at their amusement of his and Tyler’s discomfort.

And then, Tyler was screaming.

These screams weren’t like the ones Josh had heard in the church; no, these were a thousand times worse. He could smell burning flesh, could taste the bile at the back of his throat, could feel his eyes watering. Tyler whimpered loudly as one of the girls grabbed Josh by his neck and pressed something into the left bicep.

He understood why Tyler was screaming now.

Josh’s arm felt like he had dipped it in molten lava, skin and bone melting into a liquid mess. He choked, almost puking, at how bad the pain was, and heard screams of his own. 

The girls only giggled, not even giving the boys time to react before sharp nails were being dug into Josh and Tyler’s skin and they were being dragged across the mud. Neither of them knew where they were going, but both were too weak to fight. There was some rough shoving and hushed whispers as the two of them fell onto a surface lined in tiny ridges that didn’t feel good against their beaten and bruised skin. Doors slammed shut, tires screeched, and suddenly, the two were being tossed around in the back of the van like crates ready for shipment.

Two minutes passed before Tyler spoke. “Josh?”

His voice was weak, sound barely passing his lips. Josh grunted in response. He heard Tyler shift, his pinkie curling weakly around Josh’s.

“I’m so scared Josh.” his voice cracked, tears starting to roll down his face. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to us. I mean, I’m pretty sure they  _ branded _ us.”

Josh squeezed Tyler’s fingers as hard as he could.

 

When the van pulled to a stop and the engine was killed, both held their breath as doors opened and closed. They could hear talking, and the two were just  _ waiting _ for more terrible shit to happen, but nobody ever came to open the back doors. 

Tyler remained quiet, his head flooded with questions and concerns. He hated not knowing where they were, or what was going to happen. The two weren’t in a familiar area; even if they did manage to escape, where the hell would they go?

After what seemed like hours, the sound of another engine rumbled to the scene, and cold air flooded the back of the van as the back doors were thrown open. Josh was grabbed first, gloved hands tightly gripping his shoulder as he was dragged out and shoved into the grass. He could hear Tyler being dragged down next to him, his breathing unsteady and laced thickly with fear. Josh blinked back tears.

The sack was pulled off his head, hair even more  disheveled than before. He looked over at Tyler squinting into the darkness, blinking to help his eyes adjust. Suddenly, there was a burst of bright light and a flash of heat that caught their attention. They looked over at the suave of colour erupting from the fire that had just been lit.

Tyler looked at his arm, swallowing hard at the ‘1’ that had been burned into it. It looked infected, the edges starting to swell with pink already. Looking at Josh’s arm, he noticed the ‘2’ was exactly the same way. 21. Were these people mentally insane?

The van the boys had come in drove away, leaving Tyler and Josh with a large fire, the crazy brunette, and only one way out of this dark forest.

The girl gestured to the stacks of crates she had next to her, shadows dancing viciously across her face from the flames. Tyler caught Josh’s eye, his face full of fear.

Out of the first crate she pulled out Vessel on vinyl, a soft smile rising to her face as she pulled the record out of its case. Both the boys watched carefully as she spun it between her fingers and tossed it into the flames. It melted into a warped mess, Tyler’s eyes full of bitter sorrow. He gasped softly as she laughed maniacally, reaching into the bin for another record. This time it was Blurryface, and she repeated her same actions, taunting Tyler with the disc before lazily throwing it into the flame. Josh watched in shock, sinking farther down onto his knees. So  _ that’s _ why they had a closet full of their stuff.

They were destroying it.

For almost an hour Tyler and Josh watched her destroy their years of work, laughing bitterly each time Tyler would whimper and squeeze his eyes shut or Josh would fidget with his cuffs. Each album, t-shirt, record, gone in a hunk of crisp ash.

In the last crate were the posters, and she threw them in all at one time, watching as Tyler’s crossed out face caught flame and withered away like old dust. Josh noticed Tyler was crying.

He didn’t blame him.

When the leader finished, she wiped her hands on her pants in satisfaction and gave them one last smirk before climbing into the car and driving off, leaving the two cold, broken, and emotional messes. Josh collapsed forward, his entire body aching uncontrollably.

“All of that,” Tyler whispered. “Gone in one hour. Gone.”

Josh mumbled in response, grimacing at his stupid decision to shift. Tyler continued to stare at the dying embers.

“We’re going to die out here Josh.”

Josh didn’t reply. He looked around the wooded area, looking for something, anything, that might be able to help them escape the cuffs.

That was when he caught sight of the bobby pin lying near the fire pit, covered in mud, ash, and grass. He sighed with relief, thankful their captors all had long hair. 

Almost immediately Josh began making as much noise as he possibly could, trying to catch his best friend’s attention and snap him out of his gaze. When Tyler looked over at him in confusion, Josh practically dragged himself as best as he could in the mud to reach for the small piece of metal that was about to save their lives.

Tyler guffawed with a shake of his head, pushing himself onto his feet. “You’re a genius.” He helped Josh stand up, trying to be as least awkward as possible in the way things were twisting and turning. Josh handed Tyler the bobby pin carefully, trying his hardest not to drop it. Tyler let out another loud cheer as he took it in his hands, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt around for the lock. Josh watched closely, making a noise to try and guide his friend as best as he could.

When Tyler’s lock clicked and the handcuffs dropped to the grass, he almost dropped to the ground and started crying. They were actually going to get out of here  _ alive. _

He unknotted and slid the gag off of Josh, chucking it into the dying fire for nothing but theatrics. Then Tyler was hugging Josh as tightly as he could, still trying his hardest not to start crying.

“I’m sorry Tyler, I’m so sorry,” whispered Josh as he buried his head into the crook of Tyler’s neck. “I should have been there to protect you. I should have stopped it, I  _ could _ of-”

“You couldn’t have stopped anything. These people are insane, and we need to worry about our future, not the past. We need to focus on getting far,  _ far _ away from here, alright?”

With a sniff Josh nodded his head and pulled away, clinking his cuffs behind him. “Get these off of me so we can go.”

“Why do you think they just left us here?” asked Tyler as he went to work looking for the locking mechanism that would unlock the restraints. Josh tried to remain still, but all the pulling Tyler was doing really wasn’t helping his already raw wrists.

“They probably didn’t think we’d be able to get out,” he replied, sighing happily as his cuffs clicked off. He ran a hand through his hair, grimacing at how sore his body felt from all the bruises and scratches. A chill passed through his shirtless torso.

Tyler shook his head as he looked into the darkness of the forest. He then looked back over at Josh. “Well we did.”

“We did.”

He shivered, wrapping his arms around his bare chest as eyes once again drifted back towards the forest, almost as if they were drawn to some mystical force. Josh watched Tyler twitch slightly before he was taking two steps into the woods without any warning, sending Josh darting after him.

_ But it’s fun to fantasize _


	4. Fairly Løcal

 

_I’m evil to the core_

 

The two were quiet for the longest time, focusing on what little energy they had to be cautious in the dark trees of the forest. The dead branches waved in the wind every time a crisp breeze swept through the air. Josh tried to avoid having his teeth chatter as he wrapped his arms around his chest, scraping flakes of dried mud off as he rubbed his arms for warmth. Tyler was dead set on getting out; his face bore no expression besides the occasional grimace of pain. Josh was very concerned that something had happened Tyler was keeping hidden.

“Are you okay Ty?” he finally got the courage to ask quietly, face masked in concern as he watched his best friend dig his nails into the side of his head.

“M’fine,” grunted Tyler. Josh nodded, gesturing to the burn mark on Tyler’s arm.

“These are probably infected. That’s going to have to be one of our priorities.”

“Yep.”

“Isn’t mud supposed to help swelling go down? Maybe that’s why she wiped it all over me. Or maybe it’s bee stings…” Josh shrugged, instantly regretting his decision to do that. Another chill ran throughout his body.

“I don’t know.”

Something was off about Tyler’s behaviour, but Josh wasn’t going to look too far into it. They were both weak, cold, and traumatized; it had to be just that. Tyler was ~~different~~ _fine_.

Josh remained quiet for a few minutes, focusing on watching his feet so he didn’t accidentally trip over anything. And then, “How’s your nose doing?”

Tyler bit his lip as he tangled his fingers in his hair and grunted again. “How do you think it’s doing? It’s broken.”

He was snippy, which should have raised a red flag. It should have told Josh to resort to silence.

Unfortunately, Josh was not paying attention.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Tyler swung to face him with disgust flashing across his face. “No Josh, I’m not fucking okay.”

With wide eyes, Josh took a step back. Tyler _hardly ever_ cursed.

“We were not only kidnapped, but tortured to the point where my nose is broken and I have a goddamn number burned into my skin. I watched all my work get set ablaze and now I’m lost wandering this dark forest as I freeze my ass off. So no, I’m not okay.” Tyler stumbled backwards, his palm hitting the side of his head as he curled inwards with a grunt. And then he was yelling.

Tyler swung his fist around and hit the tree next to him, not even seeming to notice blood was now dripping down his hand. He dropped to his knees, both his hands flying over his ears as he screamed again.

“We’re going to die out here!” he screamed hysterically, clawing at his face. “We’re going to DIE!”

“TYLER!” Josh yelled over Tyler’s screeching as he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his friend. Tyler began to cry into Josh’s chest, his entire body wracking with each sob.

“My head hurts so bad,” whimpered Tyler as he continued to shake severely. Josh stroked his hair, tears of his own beginning to roll down his face. He hadn’t seen Tyler this upset in a long time.

“We’re gonna be okay Ty, I promise. We’ll get out of the woods, we’ll find a road, and then we’ll find a town. There’s gonna be food and warmth and water and help there, and then we can pretend this never happened, okay?” Tyler fumbled for Josh’s hands so he could hold one. Josh pulled his arms closer, trying to provide every ounce of heat he had to Tyler shivering underneath him. “You gotta be strong. Use every last bit of strength you have to focus on getting out of here, okay?”

Tyler sniffed. “My head,” he repeated, snuggling further into Josh’s chest. “I’m so tired.”

It was almost as if Tyler didn’t even remember having his freakout. He seemed innocent and weak, like a little kid. It worried Josh. Then again, Tyler was very capable of acting this way when people pissed him off. He got jealous easily, got mad easily, and maybe, just _maybe_ , this was his breaking point.

“You can sleep Tyler, I’ll stay right here.”

“No.” he sat up. “We gotta keep going. If I stop and rest now, I might never get up.” Tyler swallowed nervously before pushing himself off the wet ground. He offered Josh a hand, and then they were on the run once more.

 

The two kept a steady silence between them, Josh too afraid to stir a reaction and Tyler too focused on not passing out. His head hurt _so_ bad and he didn’t know why. It was almost if his brain was banging against his skull, begging, _pleading_ , to let it out. Tyler wished with all his heart he could actually do that.

Anything to make the pain go away.

He was so _cold_ , so tired, so lost. Josh’s presence next to him wasn’t enough for the first time since he could remember.

“Just a little bit more,” Josh continued to say, his eyes so full of hope. Tyler only saw darkness.

Only saw red.

Everytime he closed his eyes, even briefly, or squinted in the darkness, he could see all the blood dripping to the floor, sticking to his skin, matting to his hair. All his _own_ blood. His nose pulsed like a discombobulated heartbeat and his throat burned with the plead for water. If they didn’t find the road soon, didn’t get help soon, Tyler was surely convinced he was going to die.

“Tyler,” Josh started, breaking the silence for the first time in over an hour. Tyler continued to walk, fearing if he stopped he wouldn’t be able to keep moving. Josh tugged on his arm. “Listen.”

He stood still, shivering with the cool breeze. His slender, bony fingers ran over his arms and he gently shut his eyes, trying to avoid thinking about his own screams. Unfortunately, that didn’t work.

But then, and he couldn’t deny the sound: a car engine.

“The road,” Tyler scoffed, a smile rising to his face, “The ROAD!”

And then he was running.

Tyler wasn’t sure where he was running too, it was still dark and far too dangerous _to_ be running, but yet he continued racing through the trees, ignoring the burning in his legs and the coldness on his skin. Josh followed closely behind him, keeping pace the entire time.

Upon leaving the trees and finding the cool asphalt, Tyler dropped to his knees with a weak cheer. He almost debated kissing the ground to which he fell upon.

“We made it, we actually made it.”

“I told you everything was going to be okay,” Josh whispered behind him, his eyes dark against the shifting atmosphere. He ran a hand through his filthied hair and stared at the sky blossoming into a royal blue. Had they really been out all night?

“We just have to wait for a car. Well, a car and someone brave enough to take two shirtless, bloody, injured men.”

“How hard can that be?” Josh challenged with a shaky laugh. Tyler curled in on himself once more.

“I’m so tired Josh.”

“I know. And we’re so close to freedom; just a little bit more and you can sleep as long as you want."

“I’m afraid I won’t wake up,” he muttered, eyes catching the approaching headlights of a small blue car rumbling dangerous up the road. Before he could even think about it Tyler was throwing himself in front of it, completely discarding Josh’s yelling.

The car pulled to a stop, a girl with long, purple hair stepping out. Her lips were the same shade of red as those that had kidnapped them, but her eyes were full of kindness, and she slid off her coat with a sigh of worry.

“Sorry,” Tyler started, trying his hardest not to frighten her. He knew he looked horrific. “We were injured and-”

“You must be freezing,” she interrupted, stepping towards Tyler to wrap her coat around his shoulders. He sighed thankfully, pulling it closer around him. “Don’t bother explaining, let’s just get you to a hospital. Come along boys, the heater is at full blast.”

“Thank you so much,” Josh replied as he tugged on the door handle and sank into the leather seats. He couldn’t believe their luck. The _first_ car-

Something wasn’t right.

Tyler was in the front seat, his eyelids fighting to stay open as she began driving down the road. Josh watched the girl closely, his eyes full of suspicion. There was something, _something,_ off, but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what that was.

The girl only spoke when small snores were coming from Tyler. “Your friend looks quite troubled.”

“A lot has happened in the past couple of days.” Josh looked out the window, his hands shaking in his lap. His muscles ached so badly, and he wanted nothing more than a good nap of his own.

“I don’t doubt it. You wouldn’t mind if I turned on the radio, would you?”

“No, not at all. Actually, that might be better. It’ll distract me.” She glanced at him in the rearview mirror, a comforting smile on her face as she leaned over to press the “disc” button on the radio.

When Tyler’s voice filled the car, Josh wasn’t sure whether to sigh with relief or start banging on the window screaming for help. It was all too… _planned._

“This song okay?” She questioned, eyes crinkling with concern. She was too _nice._ Josh vigorously rubbed at his face. Not right. This wasn’t right.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled, still pawing at his face. His beard was suddenly driving him insane.

“I’ve always been a fan of this band. Their old stuff is far better in my taste. What do you think?”

“They’re fine,” he muttered again, almost on autopilot. _Need to get_ **_o u t_** _. Not_ **_right_** _._

She remained quiet for a while, Josh continuing to pick at his skin until he made it bleed. This wasn’t right. They needed to get out of this car, needed to get far away from this girl. He knew it didn’t make sense for a car to appear right when they needed it. She was too nice, and Tyler was asleep, and he could never wake up.

Then, “Do you ever have fantasies of torturing someone?” she sighed happily, the car suddenly jerking off the road. They had only drove at least half an hour tops; where on earth could they be heading?

Tyler woke up in a scramble, his eyes darting all around and his breathing heavy. He stared at the radio, blinking at the sound of his own voice.

“I think about it all the time. Especially with you two.”

The doors locked shut.

Josh pulled at the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. The girl began giggling high pitch and ugly, causing him to cup his hands over his ears. The car clambered over loose dirt, pulling into the parking lot of an abandoned strip mall. Windows were shattered, heavy wooden boards tightly pinned over them. Debris covered the cracked asphalt.

He _knew._

“Oh boy, you two are so _stupid._ Don’t you know to never accept rides from strangers?”

“We trusted you,” Tyler whispered, the surprise obvious in his voice. The girl laughed mockingly.

“Me driving up at the time I did wasn’t suspicious to you? They knew you would be that stupid. They actually made you believe you were halfway to freedom.”

Josh could see that stupid redhead walking towards the car. The dark haired one was there too, along with her followers. He pulled at door handle frantically, his heart beating faster and faster the closer everyone got.

The girl in the car laughed once more, smirking at Josh as she turned the radio up. Static filled the speakers, Tyler’s voice warping as it poured out. It was loud and offkey, like something he would hallucinate. Tyler seemed to be lost in a trance.

“Why are you guys doing this to us?” Josh yelled as he slid across the seat to try the other door. He knew it was pointless, but he was still trying anyways. He didn’t want to go back. Him and Tyler _couldn’t_ go back. Who knew what would happen?

The door handle unlocked with just enough time for the redhead to pull Josh to the ground before he could escape. Her foot pressed into the middle of his back as the dark haired leader yanked his hands behind him and cuffed them once more. Josh wiggled underneath them, his breathing heavy as he struggled to raise his head enough to see Tyler still in the car. He was confused to why they weren’t trying to restrain him. The doors were unlocked; it wouldn’t take much for him to get out and run.

The girl in the car seemed to be talking to him, but Josh couldn’t see Tyler’s face. He had no idea what was going on.

The redhead broke him out of his trance by yanking that horrible gag over his mouth again, muffling his screams as he continued to try and escape. Hands were touching him all over; Josh squeezed his eyes shut. He was waiting for them to hit him, to put that itchy sack back over his head and toss him into the back of a van, but it never came. A hand wrapped around his neck and he was yanked to his feet, eyes jolting open as he came face to face with the redhead. She smiled viciously, poison in her features.

“We’re going to have some fun drummer boy.”

Josh continued to scream, his hands pulling raw behind him as two others began dragging him to the other car. He caught sight of Tyler through the windshield, still lost in his own little world. He wondered if Tyler even knew Josh was being dragged away.

He was thrown into the backseat like nothing, the door locking shut before the redhead filed into the front and sped off, leaving Josh screaming for his best friend and his own safety.

 

Back at the strip mall, Tyler was unconscious, but his body was still in full function, taken over by the demon the girls had inputted into his body. The girl with purple hair stared at him with a accomplished smile, her fingers twisting in her lap as his red eyes twitched and his upper lip twisted into a snarl.

“We were waiting to see how long it would take before you let it overcome you. It seemed it was taking far too long. You’re a strong one Tyler Joseph, despite what all your music says.” She laughed loudly. “We might have had to trigger this one, but next time it’s going to be all you.”

Tyler blinked, his hands curling into fists. And, with a loud scream, he turned around and slammed his fist into the side window, completely shattering the tempered glass. It fell to the ground in tiny chunks, his eyes still glowing with evil. The girl laughed again.

“Next time you turn, you’re going to **kill** Joshua Dun.”

 

_What I want to save I’ll kill_


	5. Tear in My Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad this isn't boring you guys.

_Sometimes you gotta bleed to know_

 

All Josh could feel was pain.

Pain from the tips of his toes to the hair on his head. With a shaky attempt for a breath, he accidentally moved and a weak yell ripped from his throat. _Bad idea,_ he thought to himself.

He was in a dark room, Josh knew that. He also knew his wrists and ankles were shackled to the wall like he was some kind of medieval criminal. They had been so _close_ -

“Tyler,” he whispered, grunting again as his body shifted. He noticed a giant purplish blue bruise ran up the side of his torso and his jeans were ripped. He could feel blood sticking to the side of his head.

Josh wanted to know where his friend was, wanted to know they had done with him, what they _were_ doing with him. He was an idiot to think they could have escaped so easily. The bobby pin, the _car_ … it was all too planned.

There was water dripping from the ceiling in the corner of the room, forming a puddle on the floor below. The entire room smelled of mildew and rotting wood, which did nothing to help Josh’s already upset stomach. He figured death would be better than this.

The heavy metal door groaned with use and Josh used all his strength to look up at the stranger through his eyelashes. No, not a stranger; the redhead.

“You back to do some more damage?” he spat sarcastically, knowing perfectly well he was walking a thin line. She scoffed, sliding a small, silver key out of her pocket.

“No little drummer boy, I’m here to take you somewhere else. The experiment starts now.” Her voice was monotone, almost like someone was telling her what to say. With another grimace Josh pulled up as she unlocked the shackles, letting him fall to the ground. She kicked him in the stomach, causing him to whimper before he was once again pulled up harshly from the ground and thrown against the wall. Another pair of handcuffs tightened around his cracked and bleeding wrists, and then they were on their way.

Josh kept his head down, not even trying to fight the roughness of the girl behind him. He was too weak, and fighting would only make it a thousand times worse.

“Where’s Tyler?” he finally got the courage to ask, and the girl dug her fingers into his skin, emitting a low groan from his throat. He threw his head back in distress.

“Don’t worry about your boyfriend. We’re taking good care of him.” Josh couldn’t see, but the redhead’s smirk was filled with malice, and she knew her words were a lie.

Josh ignored the boyfriend part. “I highly doubt that.”

She slammed him against the wall, uppercutting him the in jaw before he had time to clench. Josh spat out blood, his eyes brimming with anger. “How many times have I told you drummer boys don’t get to talk?”

“I’ll talk all I want,” he fought back.

She hit him again.

“Don’t make me gag you again, you son of a bitch. We have no need for you. It’s Tyler Joseph we are concerned with.” With a step back, they were back on their way, her words circling in Josh’s mind like a merry-go-round.

_It’s Tyler Joseph we are concerned with._

What the hell did they want with Tyler?

Josh was afraid to find out.

 

Tyler screamed as the dark haired girl dragged the tip of her knife down his arm, blood spilling over the edges and dripping to the floor below. He wasn’t sure how long he had been strapped to this operating table but he really didn’t want know. Time was something Tyler was afraid of; sooner and sooner did it seem he had less and less of it.

“What makes you so special?” she had spat, pushing the knife slowly into the side of his stomach. One twist had sent Tyler into hysterics. After she pulled it out, her thumb was pressing down on the wound, blood splurting out like the fountain of youth. Tyler continued to scream. “You’re just like the rest of them. Having _problems_ doesn’t make you any better. So why _you_?”

“Please,” he begged, voice barely reaching a whisper. “Please stop.”

“Tyler Joseph,” she said mockingly, placing her blood covered hands on her hips. “the best person he knows.”

“I’m not,” he argued. “ _Please,”_

“You don’t tell me WHAT TO DO!” she screamed at him, raising the knife over her head before bringing it down into his upper right thigh. He strained against the leather, another loud plead erupting from his throat. She cut right through his jeans, pressing the flat part of the blade against the flesh wound. Tyler howled again.

She soaked her hands in his blood, giggling like a madman as she doodled on his chest. Tyler was certain he was going to pass out.

“If it wasn’t for our plans, I would kill you right now.” With a sigh, she tossed the knife behind her, ignoring the clatter. Tyler couldn’t breathe. “So we’re gonna fix you right up and start the experiment.”

“Experiment,” he breathed, trying not to focus on what would happen if his liver or intestines fell out of his body.

“Oh Mr. Joseph,” her eyes gleamed with damnation when she whipped back around, “we are going to have some _fun._ ”

 

Josh had been expecting them to toss him into another mildew filled cell, but in fact it was the exact opposite.

They went deep downstairs, so far deep that the walls were made of cement and they passed hardly anyone in the hallways. The redhead had undid his cuffs and shoved him into the room without saying a word. The door locked shut, causing him to sigh. Trapped again.

But this place was different.

It looked like a hotel room, with nice, white, carpeted flooring, a large, king sized bed in the middle with a small bathroom off to the side and an even smaller kitchen on the other. There was a large, mahogany dresser pushed up against one of the walls, surprisingly made of drywall in all this cement, filled with t-shirts, boxers, and sweats. Josh rubbed at his head.

He couldn’t comprehend what their so called “experiment” was going to be. Why did they torture him only to stuff him in his own miniature apartment? Josh was suspicious as he continued to look around. The fridge was filled with food, as well as the pantry; the cabinets were filled with dishes and cups and the sink even worked. He looked under the bed, raising an eyebrow as he pulled a dusty, cardboard box out. Inside were zipties, handcuffs, knives, and even a frickin’ gun. Josh wasn’t sure if it was loaded, but he didn’t want to find out. The box was stuffed back under the bed.

Perhaps the most peculiar thing in the room was the long, metal pole that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. It was in the corner, and behind it Josh could see a blinking red light from a black… thing. These black things were everywhere.

_Of course,_ he gasped, realizing what they were. Cameras.

They were going to observe him.

Josh shook his head. These people were insane. What the hell were they planning on watching him do? Eat? Shower? Sleep? It wasn’t like he could get out of the room easily, not with the bolted metal door being his only way out.

After a little more looking around, Josh concluded nothing was going to kill or hurt him. The shower did work, complete with little shampoo and conditioner bottles, so he figured he might as well shower. He was covered in dirt, blood, and grime; not to mention, probably some of his own filth. If they were going to give him a shower, then Josh was going to take it.

 

Tyler couldn’t stop crying.

His body was in an extreme amount of pain; more pain than he could even remember experiencing.

They had tried to stitch his wounds closed, but without any medicine Tyler was left to endure the pain himself, and that was too much for him. He threw up at least three different times.

_Then_ , they cuffed him again and dragged him down four flights of stairs to what he could only assume was the basement. With every footstep a shudder ripped through his body, screams bubbling in his throat. Wherever they were taking him, Tyler at least hoped he could lay on the ground and sleep for a good ten years.

He hadn’t expected the padded room they tossed him into. His front teeth bit right through his bottom lip in pain, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. Another round of tears started as the door locked shut. Tyler could hear something very faintly, but his brain was too much of a mess to strain and figure it out. The room was warm.

When Josh came out of the bathroom and found Tyler on the floor, he let out a gasp and dropped to his knees, one hand securing the towel around his waist. “Tyler,” he whispered, bottom lip trembling.

“I’m going to die,” Tyler mumbled against the carpet, grunting at his small wiggle. With how badly his veins were stretching against his neck, Josh could take the hint of how much pain his friend was in.

“Okay, let me get clothes on and then I’ll get you out of those. There’s a key somewhere in here.” Josh frantically darted to the dresser and pulled out clothes, not really paying attention to what he grabbed. He knew Tyler hated when he didn’t dry off all the way, but right now was going to be an exception.

After he was dressed, Josh slid the dusty box out from under the bed and reached for the silver key amidst all the weaponry and restraints. As soon as Tyler’s cuffs were off, he as gently as possible lifted up his best friend, ignoring his screaming muscles.

“Ow,” Tyler whimpered, his eyes squeezed shut. Josh sighed loudly. He could see all the off-white gauze wrapped around parts of his body, red flooding into the fabric. He was a little afraid to ask.

“What happened?”

“These people are crazy is what happened,” he replied, trying to sit up. Another grunt escaped his lips, and Josh could see the sweat in his hairline. He was in an excruciating amount of pain. “She was carving me up as some kind of rage therapy.”

“What?”

“That dark haired chick was stabbing me with a knife.” To prove his point, Tyler slowly peeled back the blood stained gauze around his thigh, revealing ten off centered and uneven black stitches. Josh covered his mouth with his hands.

“Tyler, no.”

“Oh, and then they tried to fix me up by stitching the damage they inflicted upon me. News flash, stitches hurt when you don’t have any medicine to numb the pain. Anyways, I’m just gonna lay here and pretend I’m not going to die.”

“You aren’t going to die, I promise. Just stay here and I’ll take care of you.” promised Josh as he stood up and headed towards the small kitchen. He opened the pantry, deciding on a box of Wheat Thins before closing it. Tyler’s thank you was small as he reached in the box with shaky hands.

“How long have you been here?” he asked between tiny bites.

“Not very long. I’m really confused to what exactly is going on. First they torture us and then they give us our own place? What does that do?”

Tyler grimaced as the bed shifted underneath him. “There’s a shower though? And clean clothes?”

Josh nodded. “Food too.”

With a sigh, Tyler pointed to Josh’s stomach. “Lift up your shirt.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just do it.”

Josh stared at him for a few seconds before yanking up on the hem of his shirt. He could feel his face turning red as Tyler stared at the giant purple bruise that ran the length of his stomach. There were random scratches and bruises all over his body; he wasn’t quite sure why Tyler was concerned with that particular one. Besides, Tyler was still way worse off than he was.

He sighed again and leaned his head back against the headboard. “I’m sorry Josh.”

“You don’t have to apologize. You’re the one who got stabbed with a _frickin’_ knife.”

“They’re wrong you know.” He looked directly at Josh, reaching for his hand. Josh squeezed it tightly when he reached back. “You can talk all you want. Your voice is the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Josh’s face turned even more red than before. “Thank you.”

“I don’t know what time it is, but I’m cold and tired and hurting all over. Will you sleep next to me please?”

“Yeah, of course.” Josh slid off the bed to turn off the lights and gently climbed in next to his best friend, feeling his heartbeat speed up at Tyler’s whimper. Tyler moved his head to Josh’s chest, to which Josh began running his fingers through his hair.

He shook his head sadly in the darkness once he could hear small, exhausted snores coming from Tyler’s mouth.

“I’m so sorry Tyler.”

_That you’re alive and have a soul_


	6. Lane Bøy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The weird formatting and stuff is supposed to represent Tyler's mind deteriorating, just a head's up.

_I know a thing or two about pain and darkness_

 

He woke up to Tyler screaming.

Bloodcurdling screams that jolted Josh awake and sent him spiraling to the floor. He blinked in the darkness, trying to remember where he was as his bones continued to ache. Tyler was breathing heavily now, soft whimpers escaping every so often. For just a second it felt like they were back home, on tour, when really it was just the opposite. They were being held prisoner.

“Hey Ty-guy,” Josh started as he used the bedframe to pull himself back up. He strung an arm around his friend and let him cry into his chest.

“S-sorry,” he sniffed, wiping his nose. “N-nightmare.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Trust me, I understand the nightmare part. What we’re living is one big nightmare.”

“I’m so _scared_ J. What if nobody ever finds us?” Tyler sniffed again, grunting softly as he shifted further onto Josh. “God, my head hurts so bad. It’s like they gave me a never ending headache.”

“Well they did beat the shit out of us.”

“True.” he sighed. “I wish I knew what time it was.”

“Me too.”

“I feel disgusting.”

Josh moved underneath Tyler’s weight so he could look at his friend. “You wanna take a shower? It works fine. Unless they are slowly poisoning us with carbon monoxide.”

Tyler scoffed. “There’s no way I’ll be able to stand on my own in there. I can barely move.”

“Do you want help?”

He paused, index finger tracing the creases in Josh’s shirt. With another sigh Tyler sat up, trying to ignore the pain shooting through his contracting muscles. “I mean, would that be weird?”

“You can’t take one by yourself. I’ll wash your hair and stuff. Come on.” Josh slid off the bed and wandered to the dresser to pull out some clean clothes. Tyler stared at him.

“But… I’ll be like, naked?”

“Wear some sweats if you’re self-conscious.” Josh shrugged. “I could care less. It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before.”

“I guess that’s true.” he allowed Josh to help him off the bed, hissing as the knife wound in his thigh stretched when he stood up straight. Josh wrapped his arm gently around Tyler’s waist and slowly led him to the bathroom. After turning on the water, he helped take the shreds of clothes Ty even had left and led him into the spray. Josh only pulled off his shirt before following. He tried not to look only for respect of Tyler’s privacy, but for some reason he found that really hard to do. Why all of a sudden was that the case?

“Is the water too hot?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. It’s fine.” Tyler hummed softly as he closed his eyes, letting the warm water hit him in the face. It felt like he hadn’t showered in months.

Josh lathered his hands in shampoo and gently began rubbing it into Tyler’s hair. “If I’m hurting you let me know.”

“No, it feels good. Thank you.”

“Yeah.”

The two remained quiet the rest of the shower, the only noises the small grunts of pain Tyler occasionally let slip past his lips. Josh peeled off the blood soaked gauze, muttering “sorry” each time Tyler made any type of noise, and scrubbed off as much blood and grime as he could. Then, he wrapped Tyler up in a towel, walked him to the bed, and helped him get dressed.

“You’re getting water everywhere,” Tyler pointed out as he reached out to poke Josh in the cheek. Josh flung water in his face as he shook his head.

“Oh well.”

“Thank you.” his face was red, embarrassed by the fact that he, a grown man, had to have help taking a shower. “I know that was probably, uh, a little awkward.”

“You know the old people in all the nursing homes have to have help taking showers.”

“That doesn’t make it any better Jish.”

He laughed. “Sorry. I’m gonna dry off and change out of these, alright? You try and get some more sleep. You’re still looking like a skeleton over there.”

“Isn’t that the point?”

“Go to sleep Tyler.” Josh demanded as he made his way back into the bathroom. “You need rest.”

“Josh, you know you’re just as bad as m-”

“You’re _far_ worse than me and you know it. I’m fine. Please get some rest.” He popped back out rubbing a towel on his head, a small pleading look on his face. “Please.”

“Fine,” grumbled Tyler as he looked up at the ceiling. “You better wake me up soon.”

“Yeah yeah.” They shared one last small smile before Tyler was snuggling further into the sheets.

 

“They’re watching us you know,” Josh whispered quietly. He sat cross legged on the carpet, staring at the blinking red light in the corner of the room. It had been a few hours since Tyler had woken up. He was still groggy and in a lot of pain, but there was definitely an improvement.

Tyler looked over at Josh from the bed as he prodded at the swollen skin around his burn. It was raised at the surface, gross pink flesh tinted with green. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was filled with pus.

“I kind of figured.”

“Makes you wonder if they have someone watching this very conversation, huh?” Josh twisted his fingers together in his lap. “Maybe they’re waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” With a sigh, Tyler dropped his hands to the side, bored of his stupid brand.

“Waiting for us to go crazy or something.” he started picking at the carpet. “I’m bored.”

“Better to be bored than tortured,” Tyler murmured as he swung his legs off the side of the bed with a grunt. Josh watched him walk over the dresser in curiosity, still picking at the carpet.

Tyler stared at the wood of the dresser, watching the different shades of brown all melt into one massive mess. He blinked rapidly, bringing his hands up his rub at his eyes.

“Ty? You doing okay?”

“Wha-? Yeah. M’fine. Sorry, I...don’t…”

His head was pounding and he couldn’t remember how to talk. Tongue just a useless lump, he poked at it, continuing to stare at the wood. His hands reached out to grip the edge as his knees buckled underneath him. Tyler hit the carpet with a thud, his skin crawling, almost as if a million ants were living under his skin. He began scratching and picking at his skin, breathing heavy as his head continue to pound. The walls of the room were warping right in front of him, catching on fire as they burned into ash. Throat heavy with invisible ash, he began coughing.

Josh was to Tyler seconds after his knees hit the carpet, face masked in worry. He watched in fear as Tyler clawed at his skin so badly to the point where blood began pooling to the floor below, screaming his head off.

“THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME!”

“Tyler,” he said softly as he moved in closer. “Nobody is trying to kill you. It’s just me. You’re okay!”

Screams. Blood.

Red, so much red.

Death decay -

_Stay low._

_A v o i d_ ~~destroy~~ **watch** ~~protect~~

**_T e m p t a t i o n_ ** **.**

Tyler continued to scream.

“LET ME OUT!”

“You’re okay!” Josh wrapped his arms around Tyler, trying to have him avoid hurting himself anymore. Tyler broke down into tears, his entire body shaking as he tried to calm down. He didn’t know what had happened.

He didn’t _know_.

 

They came for Tyler only hours later.

Josh had been lying on the bed next to him, still trying to sooth his shaking sobs and swirling mind when the door banged open and that dark haired girl Tyler so badly feared stood in the doorway. Tyler’s eyes widened.

“Round Two,” she sang as she pointed her gun directly at the two of them. Frozen in fear, Josh did not move. He wanted to tell her to leave Tyler alone, but he could not do that if he didn’t want a bullet in the face.

The girl ripped Tyler off the bed and slammed him against the wall, digging the barrel of her gun into his neck as a new pair of cuffs were secured around his wrists. They were gone before Josh finally had the courage to say anything.

Tyler continued to shake as they walked, his head facing the ground to avoid making eye contact with anyone. She paused, opening a door before shoving him inside.

“Sit,” she commanded, and Tyler did. He watched her open a wardrobe. “We need to do something else I guess. You aren’t doing what we want you to do.”

“And what’s that?” he asked, voice raspy in fear.

“Give into temptation.” The girl flashed him a smirk before turning back around. Tyler watched her pull out a black shirt, charcoal, and… his floral kimono.

Where had they _gotten that?_

“How did…?” he started to ask, but the brunette laughed mockingly.

“Oh Mr. Joseph, we have our ways. You don’t need to worry about anything. We’re just going to do some triggering to make you snap faster is all.”

“That’s my stage gear. I don’t understand-”

“You don’t NEED TO UNDERSTAND!” she screamed at him, backhanding him across the face. He glared at her in anger, but clenched his jaw and kept his mouth shut. “All you need to do is kill Joshua Dun.”

He let a gasp escape. “What? I’m not going to-”

She hit him again, this time a punch right to his already broken nose. A yell escaped his throat.

“Give into _temptation,_ ” she whispered right in his ear. Tyler swallowed nervously. It seemed his headache got worse. “Can’t you feel what’s inside of you?”

Tyler did not answer.

“Listen to the music Mr. Joseph.” her fingers trailed gently across his jaw before Tyler’s vision became blurry. All he could see was red, all he could _hear…_

_Listen._

_Give in_ ~~_don’t_ ~~ _to_ **_temptation_ **

Tyler stared at her was dead eyes, his head spinning. She grinned.

“Perfect.”

 

When Tyler returned to the room with his hands and neck covered in black, Josh knew something had happened. He had spent the entire time pacing back and forth hoping they weren’t going to make things worse. Tyler didn’t seem to have any new cuts and bruises, so that was good.

But… something was off.

Josh couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was wrong. Tyler didn’t feel like Tyler.

“What happened?” he asked, pleading.

Tyler stared at him. “Nothing.” Then he walked to the corner and stood there, staring up at the camera.

Josh couldn’t see Tyler’s grin. If he could, maybe he would have known something was wrong. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so in denial about their situation.

 

**_K n e e l_ ** ~~don’t~~ **_to these concepts_ **

**_S t a y_ ** ~~help me~~ **_l o w_ **

 

_If it wasn’t for this music, I don’t know how I would have fought this_


	7. The Judge

_ I don’t know if this one _

Nobody came for them for a while.

All there was to do was sit and wait.

Josh was anxious, there was no other way to describe it. He spent his time waiting for them to come and take either Tyler or him. He watched the door, expecting it to open. Expecting himself to start screaming in pain.

He had nightmares of Tyler getting killed. Josh was afraid that might actually happen. 

Ever since they had taken Tyler, Tyler hadn’t been himself. He sat in the corner all day and refused to talk. When he did talk, it was like that night they were in the forest. He was snippy and rude and didn’t say much. Josh didn’t push anything; Tyler had good judgement. He probably was just stressed out. Josh certainly was.

So they sat in silence.

 

Josh kept tapping on the bed frame, his eyes watching the door cautiously. Everytime he took a breath his hand would shake. He  **_knew_ ** they would come back. Josh just didn’t know when.

“God, will you shut the fuck up?”

He jumped, Tyler’s unsettling tone frightening him. Something was definitely wrong.

_ Nothing is wrong. Tyler is just as antsy are you are. Everything is  _ ~~_ terrible _ ~~ _ fine. _

“Sorry. I’m just nervous.” Josh looked over at Tyler sitting in the corner of the room and sighed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Well you don’t seem fine.”

“What do you want from me Josh? We’re being held prisoner by fucking crazy people.”

“Why do you keep cursing?” he finally asked, anger rising in his voice. Tyler usually frowned upon that.

“Just leave me alone.”

Josh went back to looking at the door.

~~_ Wrong wrong wrong. _ ~~

Tyler was fine. Just, upset. Yeah.

 

He started screaming. Josh went to see what was wrong and Tyler  _ hit _ him.

It was right in the face too.

Tyler was  ~~_ not _ ~~ fine.

 

“Josh?” Tyler was still sitting in the corner while Josh tried to get some sleep. He blinked in the darkness, not even bothering to look over at him. Although, Josh was very surprised Tyler had a sudden interest in speaking to him.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.” he actually sounded sincere. Josh was surprised.

“It’s okay.”

Tyler was fine.

 

“Are you scared Josh?” Tyler was speaking to him again. He still sat in the corner, his hand completely covered in bloody scabs from when he had continually rubbed it against the wall and began digging at it. He would pick the scabs off and the process would start again. Josh swore Tyler was losing his hair. Maybe even losing his mind.  _ Tyler is fine. _

“Scared of what?”

“Scared of dying.”

“Of course I am.” he swallowed loudly and continued washing his hands in the kitchen sink. Josh could feel eyes on him, even though he knew they weren’t Tyler’s. Tyler never left the corner anymore. Not for food, not for sleep - in fact, Josh couldn’t remember the last time Tyler had taken a shower. The charcoal still coated his neck and hands, adhesing to everything he touched. “I think about dying everyday and I’m terrified.”

“I’m not.” It sounded like Tyler, but it _didn’t_. Josh blinked and refused to turn around. Tyler was **_f i n e._** “I’m not scared of dying.”

“Okay.” Josh turned the sink off.

“I’m not. I know you don’t believe me. It’s not just me dying, it’s everyone else. I’m not scared of them dying. I’m not even scared of you dying.”

His knuckles were turning white. Still, he refused to turn and look at Tyler. Josh knew perfectly well what he would see.

“Do you think I’ll go to hell Josh?” He could hear Tyler shift and that broke him. Josh gave in and turned around, his heart increasing in speed when he realized Tyler was staring at him. His hair was filthy, greasy clumps sticking to his forehead and face dusted with a heavy 5 o’clock shadow. Perhaps the thing that terrified Josh the most were Tyler’s eyes. 

Tyler had the most beautiful eyes Josh had ever seen. They weren’t just brown, they were filled with hope, happiness, darkness, creativity, pain, love, and just about every other emotion he could ever think of with little flecks of gold thrown in. But now, they looked dead, bloodshot, and sleep deprived.

The eyes of a crazy person.

His words didn’t seem to want to come out.

“Let me rephrase that. Do you think I even have a soul?” Tyler turned back around and went back to tapping on the wall. Josh only watched. “Sometimes I’m not really sure.”

“You have a soul,” he finally whispered. “I know you have a soul Tyler.”

“I don’t think so. People who think about killing shouldn’t have souls.”

“Do you think about killing?”

“All the time.”

Josh shook his head and turned back around, his stomach churning as he gripped the countertop like a lifeline.

“This place is getting to you Ty-guy.” Josh almost laughed at the nickname. It didn’t seem to fit the imposter pretending to be  _ his _ Tyler.

**_Tyler is fine._ **

“This place is a lot better than I thought it would be,” Tyler whispered. Josh couldn’t get that  _ goddamn _ tapping out of his head.

“This place is terrible.”

“Shut up,” Tyler said, and then he was screaming, hands cupped over his ears.

Josh almost started crying.

Tyler is ~~a mess~~ **_F I N E_** _._

_ Is about me or the devil _


	8. Døubt

_ Fear leads to anxiety _

 

“I’m going to take a shower,” declared Tyler one morning. Or at least, Josh thought it was morning. With wide eyes, Josh watched him stand up from his spot in corner and walk over to the bathroom, stripping out of his clothes on the way there. He blinked a couple of times as the shower turned on and Tyler’s faint humming disappeared.

Josh found himself sighing with relief. His friend had to have been traumatized is all. He was crazy to think anything different.

When Tyler came out with his hair soaking wet and the towel set very low on his hips, Josh sat up from his position on the bed and watched him walk up to the dresser. Tyler stared at the wood for a few seconds, gently dragging his fingertips across it.

And then his towel dropped to the floor.

Josh swallowed nervously as he watched Tyler turn back around. He had this smirk on his face, one full of pride and confidence. Josh had never seen that look on Tyler. Tyler was the exact opposite. It wasn’t that he was confident, but the man was humble. He wrote music about his insecurities, not the best things about him.

He didn’t look like himself. 

“There isn’t much for us to do in here, is there?” Tyler’s voice was husky as he made his way back to the bed. Josh backed up off the bed and moved towards the wall.

“I mean, n-no, but-”

“But what? Don’t you want to have a little fun Josh?”

“Well, I mean-”

“We aren’t getting out of here any time soon you pathetic slut, so either you come over here let me fuck you or I’ll-” his words ended abruptly as something, Josh wasn’t sure what, came over him. He stumbled backwards a bit, eyes clouding over. With a grunt he forced himself to walk back over to the dresser and pull out clothes. With fear, Josh watched Tyler dress slowly. He seemed confused, like his limbs were too long and disproportionate.

“Ty?” Josh tried after a while, his own voice coming out heavy and shaky. Tyler didn’t reply, just continued to stare at the dresser like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Josh reached out for his shoulder. “Ty. Come on.”

“They’re going to come back for me.” he swiveled around so quickly Josh jumped in surprise and took a step back. “I can  _ feel _ it.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” He let out a nervous laugh and ran his hands through his hair. “I know Josh, I just know. They’re gonna come back for me. They’re gonna take me and cut me open and tell me, ‘You aren’t giving into  _ temptation _ ,’ but I am Josh, I am. I can’t give in anymore than I already have.”

“What are you talking about?” Josh tilted his head in confusion and fear. He took another step back, just for good measure.

He laughed again and leaned against the dresser. “I don’t even know. My head is...just...like, pounding and stuff.”

“You have a headache?” Josh tried to clarify, but he was starting to realize that Tyler wasn’t as fine as he thought kept telling himself he was.

“No… there’s something inside of me…” Tyler pointed to his head and grinned. He began rotating his finger in a circle, the universal sign for crazy.

“Tyler?” Josh’s voice was barely over a whisper, he was so scared. It wasn’t just for his own life, but for his friend’s too, and his sanity as well.

Tyler crumpled to the ground like he had been hit in the back of the shins, his eyelids fluttering shut. With an embarrassing yelp Josh jumped backwards and stared for a few seconds, waiting for Tyler to try and eat him or something along those lines. But nope, Tyler just remained on the floor unconscious and not moving. He felt terrible, he really did, but Josh couldn’t bring himself to touch Tyler. Something was  _ really _ wrong with him and he was a little too scared to find out.

 

Josh sat in the corner of the room right behind that stupid pole, his fingers digging into the carpet. Tyler was on the other side of the bed, still knocked out. Josh could hear his breathing. It sounded gentle and even, like he was doing nothing more than sleeping away an evening after a show. He shut his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. They hadn’t been here that long, maybe a couple weeks or so (who knows? He really had lost track of time.) Josh wished they could be back to sleeping in a bus and playing shows. He wished he and Tyler hadn’t gone outside into a frickin’ dark alleyway and he wished they hadn’t been stupid enough to go alone. Josh would never forgive himself for what happened to the two of them.

After about another half an hour of silence, Tyler shifted and Josh’s eyes shot open. Tyler kept groaning, like he was in an extreme amount of pain. There was some rattling and banging that interested Josh.

“Tyler…?” said Josh slowly as he moved around the side of the bed. He was still incredibly wary, not to mention a little groggy and out of it. Which was not a good combination, especially now.

Because on the other side of that bed was  **not** Tyler.

He looked at Josh with a dead expression, head tilted like he was studying him. The box of weapons was tilted over, handcuffs, knives and gun sprawled across the floor. Tyler gripped a long, silver knife in his hand.

That wasn’t even the scariest thing in Josh’s opinion. Tyler’s eyes, now  _ that _ was the scariest thing, because they were a dark maroon that made them look like they were filled with blood.

A small gasp escaped his lips as he backed up, causing Tyler to let out an animalistic growl.

“Tyler,” Josh repeated as he put his hands out in front of him, “Come on, I know you’re in there. I know this isn’t you. You have to fight it Ty, you have to-”

“Tyler’s not home,”  _ it _ snarled, and Josh’s eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t even his friend’s  _ voice _ ; it was a deep, gravely rustic that made him want to scream and bang on the door begging these crazy people to let him out. He  _ understood _ what experiment they were talking about. They turned Tyler into the thing he was scared of most.

Tyler (it didn’t feel right calling him Tyler when he know it wasn’t Tyler) pushed himself off the ground, a smirk replacing his growl. “You know, I didn’t think the kid would ever let me out. He definitely knew I was in there though. I managed to get through to him. I’d  _ whisper _ things. You know.”

Josh shook his head.

“Come on Joshie, is that anyway to treat a guest? This is the first time I’ve been able to properly introduce myself.”

“What are you?” he backed up all the way to the wall, swallowing fearfully as his back slammed against it. No way out.

Tyler’s grip tightened around the knife to the point where his knuckles were white. “I’m not human if that makes you feel any better. I don’t exactly have a name, but your neighbours out there were nice enough to pick one out for me. Blurryface. What do you think?”

“These people are fucking crazy,” Josh said out loud, and it seemed to trigger a snap in the  _ thing _ that was currently residing in Tyler’s body. With a loud scream he lunged at Josh with the knife, swinging it with so much purpose Josh knew he was serious. Tyler wanted to  _ kill _ him.

Josh slid over the bed, his bare feet landing hard on one of the blades Tyler had dumped over. He hissed and looked down briefly to see the blood inching out of his right foot. 

Tyler made his way back around, managing to grab Josh by the arm and swing him out in the open. Blood stained the carpet as Josh tripped backwards and hit his head hard on the metal door. With a groan he rolled around Tyler as he made another swing.

“You don’t have to make this so difficult!” he growled, managing to dig his nails into Josh’s shoulder. Weak, Josh breathed heavy as Tyler slammed him against the wall with an abnormal amount of strength. He pressed the blade to Josh’s throat, nicking skin with the silver. “You have no idea how badly I’ve waited to do this. Ever since they told me to tell him to do this, I’ve wanted to so badly. Tyler wants to as well, he’s been telling me how  _ tired _ he is of you.”

“That’s a lie,” Josh said calmly, staring into his friend’s dead eyes. He tried to pretend he wasn’t shaking a mile a minute underneath Tyler’s cold touch.

With a quick flick the blade moved down his jaw, sending blood spilling down his neck and into the fabric of his shirt. Josh flinched, his eyes squeezing shut.

“I’m just the messenger babe,” he said in a low, husky voice, the blade moving back up to his throat.

Then Josh made the dumb decision to shove Tyler off of him.

He must have had the element of surprise on his hand as the  _ thing _ stumbled backwards in shock, the knife hitting the soft ground below. Josh rolled over the bed, not caring he was staining it with blood, and reached for the handcuffs on the carpet, an idea coming into his head. He dodged out of Tyler’s way as he ignored his yelling and moved behind the pole.

Josh knew what that was for now. 

Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised. These people were insane and in need of some serious therapy sessions. He would be too after this.

Tyler made another move for him, and Josh pushed forward, grabbing his wrist to slap the cuff around. He pulled hard, earning a yell of pain from the thing as he brought it back around the pull and slapped it on his around wrist. Tyler screamed loudly, struggling to free himself from the handcuffs as he wiggled around like a madman. Josh stood a good distance away, trying to catch his breath as he stared at his beaten and broken friend. Whatever these girls had done to Tyler, it was going to take more than escaping to fix this problem.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU JOSH!”  _ It _ kept screaming as Josh busied himself on cleaning his cuts. Josh tried to ignore him, but his skin was crawling every time he heard that deep, gravelly voice coming out of his friend’s mouth. He couldn’t believe how  _ stupid _ he had been. Josh had seen signs since the earliest days of their kidnapping, and he had shrugged them off like they were nothing. 

This was all his fault.

“How happy I’ll be when your fucking  _ rotting _ corpse is thrown in a grimey lake somewhere,” he sneered, and a shiver ran through Josh’s body. He squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the tears beginning to fall as he went about dressing his wounds.

Eventually, the thing inside Tyler lost control, and his vessel slumped to the floor in a broken heap. His breathing was uneven, almost like he was the one out of breath, and sweat perspired at his hairline. Josh stared in sympathy before turning towards one of the blinking cameras in the room.

“This is all your fucking fault,” he yelled loudly, pointing a blood stained finger towards it. Then Josh curled up on the bed and sobbed harder than he ever had in a long time.

“All your fucking fault.”

  
_ Don’t know what’s inside of me _


	9. Pølarize

_ Wanted to be a better brother, better son _

 

A loud groan escaped Tyler’s lips as he blinked a couple of times and tried to ignore the pounding in his head. 

“Tyler?”

His eyes shot open. The light made him squint, but there in front of him sat none other than Josh himself, his own eyes wide with worry. Tyler tried to shift and let out a yelp of pain. He craned his neck to see his cuffed hands were stained with reddish-brownish scabs and purplish blue bruises. He gulped.

“Josh? What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” He looked terrified now. Tyler noticed the heavy clotted cut that ran the length of Josh’s jaw and groaned at his shift in posture.

“I remember…” he blinked. “You helped me shower.”

“ _ That’s _ the last thing you remember?” The worry was thicker than the fear now. Tyler nodded.

“Is… that bad?”

“Oh Tyler.” Josh ran his hand through his hair and let out a loud breath of air. “Things are  _ bad. _ ”

“What… what happened? Did you… did you do this?” He raised his hands slightly, wincing as they rubbed against the metal.

“You…” Josh took another deep breath. “You tried to kill me.”

Those five words hit Tyler like a stack of bricks. His eyes widened and his speech seemed to lodge its way inside his throat. “W-what?”

“I think that you’re possessed Tyler. Like, by an actual demon. You passed out, and when you woke up, it wasn’t you. Your eyes were bright red and you were snarling and screaming and swinging that knife around with a purpose. Like, you actually wanted me dead. Not you. The demon.”

“A demon? Josh that’s-”

“I know what it sounds like. You can’t remember anything though dude. I don’t even know if you are back to yourself or what. I mean, don’t you remember how snippy you acted in the woods?”

“Yeah, I remember that much but don’t take that personal dude, I only-”

“And then they came and took you away and when you came back you weren’t yourself. You sat in the corner and said nothing or sometimes you said things that sent shivers down my spine. I refuse to believe that was you trying to murder me. You have to be possessed.”

“But I don’t…” Tyler swallowed nervously. That sounded ridiculous. Tyler knew lore about angels and demons from church, but he never actually thought about it being real, about them being on earth and actually possessing people, nonetheless him. That was crazy. “I don’t feel anything inside of me. I feel normal.”

Josh shrugged. “He’s letting you have control of your body or something. I’m not an expert in demons but trust me when I tell you there was no way that was you. They have it all on tape. If they come to get you or me, we have to find the cameras. Think Tyler, is there anything they did to you that you haven’t told me yet?”

He was reluctant to tell Josh simply out of the fear Josh would be angry. “I… yeah. In the beginning. They had me strapped to this chair, and they hooked this thing up to me and electrocuted me and dude, I should have  _ died.  _ I passed out I think, and then next thing I knew they were back beating the shit out of me. I have no idea what happened in between then.”

“What if…” Josh tapped his chin, thinking. Tyler couldn’t help but notice that his friend was pushing his body back, out of fear he assumed. It made his chest hurt. “What if these crazy ass people made you this way?”

“I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how demonic possession works.”

“Assuming that is what this is. But I have no idea what else it would be.” Josh sighed, rubbing his hands along his arms before standing up. “I’m sorry Tyler, but I can’t take those off of you. Please understand.”

“Yeah, uh, I got it.” His hands were shaking now, something pushing on his chest. He wondered if that was what it felt like to have a demon inside you, or if it was just the guilt piling up. “Josh, I’m uh, really sorry. You know I would never try and hurt you for real, right? Please. I’m so sorry I did that to you.”

“It wasn’t you Tyler. It’s okay.” He forced a smile, eyes wet with tears. “I’m gonna go step in the shower and uh, try and clean up so nothing gets infected.” Josh disappeared into the bathroom before Tyler gathered the courage to reply.

He hated himself. He hated the way Josh was looking at him now, full of pity and fear. He hated feeling like he couldn’t breathe. He hated being stuck in this stupid place by these stupid people.

_ Hola Tyler, how you feeling babe? _

His breathing hitched. That wasn't his voice in his head.

“Stop,” Tyler mumbled, pulling at his handcuffs slightly. The thing in his chest stirred, and suddenly his body was on fire. He was losing feeling in his fingers and toes.

_ Do you remember what happened? What I told you? What I have been telling you? _

“No,” his speech became slurred as he squeezed his eyes shut. Josh had been right. 

Tyler remembered now.

_ Yeah you do. You’ve snapped out of your little stupor, haven’t you? _

Tyler wanted nothing more than for Josh to come back into the room.

_ Listen baby, you gotta stop fighting me again, alright? Makes things a little easier on you. Does that sound good? If I take the reigns and you relax a little? _

“Mmmm,” Tyler moaned, his body slumping over. He felt so tired, like he needed to sleep for a hundred years. 

_ That’s good love, so good. Remember how beautiful you are when you sleep. Just let me do the talking, let me kill Josh, and then everything will be fine. We can go home and get out of here, alright? _

“Kill Josh,” he repeated, not really paying attention to the words slipping from his lips. Tyler really wasn’t in charge of his body anymore. He remembered what it had been like the first time. He hurt all over. This  _ thing _ inside of him gave him so much praise, made him feel so much peace, and it was all an act. This thing was evil.

But the piece of his brain that knew that was forbidden to his memory. Tyler couldn’t tell you the last thing he had access to in his mind.

 

When Josh came out of the bathroom to put some clothes on, he locked eyes with a grinning Tyler who wasn’t Tyler anymore. His hands began to shake as he quickly pulled clothes out of the bureau and darted back into the bathroom to change, Tyler’s demonic laughter echoing throughout the room. 

“Are you trying to hide from me love?”

Josh didn’t answer.  _ It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real. _

“If you let me kill you, the job will be done. The girls will discard your friend here on the sidewalk with nowhere to run. However, he’ll also get sent to prison, and I’ll still be in him.” He cackled again.

“Stop,” Josh growled, more towards the thoughts swirling in his head than the demon possessing his best friend. He tried to rack of his brain for every single thing he knew about demons, every little piece of information that could help him. All he knew was that they supposedly lived in hell, served Satan, and did nothing but pure evil. Josh also thought they weren’t real.

That was obviously proved wrong.

“I won’t stop until I slit your throat.”

He wanted to beg Tyler to fight that thing inside of him, but he knew it would be no use. Even worse, he had a feeling, that deep down inside, Tyler was  _ letting _ this thing do whatever it wanted.

Josh hoped that wasn’t the case.

  
_ Wanted to be a better adversary to the evil I have done _


	10. We Døn’t Believe What’s Øn TV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, this one is brutal.

_ What we want we know we can’t believe _

 

Josh didn’t get a lick of sleep that night.

He spent most of it curled up against the bathroom wall, trying to block out Tyler’s - Not Tyler’s - laughter, his comments, the sound of metal scraping against that stupid pole.

In the morning, (again, it could have been the middle of the day, Josh didn’t know) the door was thrown open, and Josh perked up from his spot on the wall. He peeked out from behind the gap serving as a doorway, the redhead chick leaning against the main doorway with her gun lazily pointed towards no one in particular. She looked over at Tyler beaming, his blood red eyes staring at her curiously with a small tilt of his head. Even overnight, he seemed drained of all his energy. Tyler’s once tan skin was replaced with a sickly pale, veins dark and bulging. His hair stuck up in all directions and random bruises, cuts, and patches of blood dotted his neck and arms.

“Hey there buddy,” she grinned evilly, making Josh want to puke. He rolled back against the wall and slammed his eyes shut, counting quietly as he tried to breathe.  _ 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. _

“I’d shake your hand, but I’m a little tied up at the moment.” That  _ thing _ let out a loud laugh, sending another round of goosebumps to rise on Josh’s skin.

“I’ll get you out of those in a few minutes. I’ve got to borrow your roommate for a second, and then we can talk privately.”

“Oh  _ wonderful. _ ”

“Joshua? Love? It’s time for a little chat.”

He could hear her moving farther into the room, her gum smacking every so often. When she poked her head into the bathroom, Josh refused to make eye contact with her.

That was, until her gun cocked and he felt the barrel against his temple.

“I suggest you get moving unless you’d rather have your brains displayed on the bathroom wall.”

With a shaky breath, Josh stood up and allowed the redhead to yank his arms back rather harshly and chain them once more. They had just began healing, so this was not helping at all.

Tyler eyed him with a smirk as Josh was shoved out the door of their temporary apartment, one eyebrow cocked. Josh tried to avoid thinking about the cold metal being pressed against the back of his neck as he shuffled down the hallway. He wasn’t going to lie, he was beyond terrified at the moment. Who knew what was going to happen? They had the fucking nerve to put a  _ demon _ into his best friend; they could remove his soul from his body for all he knew. Josh just wanted to know why they were here and why the demon wanted Josh to be dead so badly.

“We’re going to show you something important,” she murmured in his ear, pausing to nip at the skin right below it before pushing him forward again. They walked up one more flight of stairs before turning a sharp left into a pitch black room. Josh was shoved down into an uncomfortable metal folding chair, his hands thrown behind the backing. He could feel the redhead pulling zipties tight around his ankles and winced in pain.

Then she stood up, and Josh watched her dark figure fumble with a remote control. There was a sudden blast of light from the large screen in front, and Josh immediately recognized the camera footage.

“You see this? This is what we can see from your room. You see your friend there? Oh, I’m sorry. Guess he’s not really your friend anymore, now is he?” She smiled mockingly and Josh cast his eyes to the ground. He didn’t want to see Tyler struggling.

“Look at the screen you fucker,” she growled, yanking him back by the hair so he was forced to look at the screen. The camera footage changed to something different. It was the fight; Tyler chasing Josh all around screaming he was going to kill him. Josh’s eyes widened.

“But wait! There’s more!” the screen clicked again, and this time, it was the two of them in the shower. Josh blinked. They really had no privacy. “That’s a little gay in my opinion.”

“Fuck you,” replied Josh with more courage than he thought he had, and the girl elbowed him in the face.

“You have no idea what else we have,” she cackled, changing the footage again. The minute the footage flickered to life, Josh wished he was anywhere but here.

Tyler was strapped to an operation table, the crazy brunette leader screaming as she carved into his skin. Josh had never seen so much blood in his life, had never heard Tyler scream like that.

“Please stop,” he whispered, voice shaky. The redhead laughed again.

“All this footage?” she started it off as a question, “Is going to be plenty useful. In fact, it’s already online.”

“W-what?” No, it couldn’t be. If anyone saw that...

“Yessirree, you take a look at your twitters, facebooks, tumblrs, and you’ll see this footage. Nasty, heavy footage of you and Mr. Joseph being brutally tortured, screamed at, yelled at. The world needs to know how much you deserve this, Mr. Dun. The world needs to see that your shitty band isn’t all it’s been put out to be.”

“Why are you doing this to us?” Josh cried, a loud sob escaping his throat. He shifted underneath her nails being dug into his skull. “Why us?”

“Because we saw how powerful you were becoming. We saw how powerful Mr. Joseph was. And our friend currently residing inside your boyfriend needed someone strong. We needed you. Well, not you exactly. You are worth nothing to us. But that was what he wanted, to kill you.”

Josh didn’t answer. He was too busy crying. 

“Kill you and use Mr. Joseph as his vessel, those were his two requests. So of course we gave it to him. We got to kidnap you, got to torture you, got to make your lives living hell. And now, we’re going to get money out of it. Four  _ million _ dollars for the return of your  _ precious _ Twenty One Pilots.”

“You’re fucking insane!” Josh finally yelled, snapping his teeth at the girl’s hand. She pulled away and hit him right in the nose. He could feel blood pouring into his mouth and down his chin. Then she hit him again. And again. And again.

“FUCK YOU!” She screamed loudly, bringing her first down again. Josh growled at her in pain, his eyes watering. In fact, he was pretty sure one of them was swollen shut. “I’m going to make you nice and pretty for the video we’re about to make. It’s going to be broadcasted all over the internet, all over TV. Everyone is going to see how broken and beat you are. And then, when they try and contact the police to find you guys, you’ll already be dead, and Mr. Joseph will be far,  _ far _ away. He won’t be himself either.” She giggled again before leaving the room and returning with a brown belt with pieces of bone embedded in it. Josh eyed it nervously.

The redhead strung it through her belt loop for a second before knocking the chair over, his head slamming hard on the concrete floor. He didn’t even have time to react before the ties were slit and he was literally dragged to the room he had been chained in God knows how long ago. She unlocked his handcuffs and slammed him against the wall, one hand wrapped around his neck. Her perfectly manicured nails dug into his skin, cutting off his air supply as the other locked the shackles around his wrists and ankles. This chick had some insane strength on her hands.

The only part that was different this time, was that she chained him backwards so his back was facing her.

His shirt was torn into shreds in seconds, exposing his bare back to the cold air. Josh heard the snap of the belt and instantly melted into a pile of sobbing.

“Please,” he begged, pulling at the shackles, “please, I’m begging you, don’t-”

“Shut the fuck up,” she sneered, snapping the belt again.

When it came down on his bare skin, Josh howled in pain. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced; Josh wanted to die. It wasn’t just the belt that hurt, it was the little pieces of bone embedded inside, for everything they hit his back they got stuck, pulling off skin on the way up. The belt continually hit the same spots repeatedly for a good while, Josh screaming each time.

When the redheaded bitch finally finished, she trailed her fingers up and down his blood soaked back, grinning ear to ear as she smeared it all over the rest of his body. Then she readjusted his restraints, happy he was too weak to fight (no serious, Josh could barely even breathe) and left the room for a brief moment only to return with a camera and a tripod. Josh lifted his head slightly, his entire body throbbing with each action he performed. Blood seemed to be in every nook and cranny of his entire body.

“Alright baby, I’m gonna need you to stay still while I do this, alright? Be a good boy for me, okay?”

Josh didn’t reply.

She fiddled with the camera for a good five minutes before grinning victoriously. The camera beeped, and Josh looked up at it with the ounce of strength he even had left. From behind the camera, he watched the redhead pull on a ski mask, one Tyler put on practically every show. He felt like she was mocking them by wearing that.

When the girl came into the view of the camera, she once again grabbed a fistful of his hair, forcing him to look up.

“Bet you’ve been wondering where your precious band is, huh? Where they’ve ran away too? Well guess again, because I’ve got one of them in custody right this very moment.

“You’ve probably seen the footage we so kindly posted on the internet for you, but now you can see one half in  _ real time. _ And if you want them back, all we need is 4 million dollars. That’s simple enough, right? Especially if their families ever want to see them again.” She giggled, using her other hand to punch him in the face. He let out another yelp of pain before she let his head go and went to go off the camera. Josh could feel tears streaming down his cheeks once more.

“You did so good for me baby, not saying a word. You’ll look so pretty on camera, I know it.” Her smile was full of so much evil it disgusted him. How could someone be okay with doing so much harm to someone else? It left him in disbelief. “As a reward, I won’t take you back to the room right away. We’ll delay your death a little bit, sound good? You can stay up here for the rest of the day.”

_ Mmm, thanks _ , he thought as she threaded her fingers through his hair. The redhead reached for the camera, flashed him a smile from behind her mask, and just like that, disappeared, letting the door slam behind her, leaving Josh to sob in darkness.

 

_ We have all learned to kill our dreams _


	11. Message Man

_ Hope you’re dead _

 

Josh dreamed he was strapped to that stupid bed in the basement, Tyler’s bright red eyes gleaming happily over him as he repeatedly dragged the tip of a knife down his arms. His screams were loud, and woke him up.

With a heavy breath, Josh told himself it wasn’t real, although he knew perfectly well Tyler was downstairs with a frickin’ demon inside of him. He felt so sick, like he might puke any second. They were honestly planning on having him murdered. Maybe they would get their ransom only for everyone to discover that Josh was dead and Tyler was long gone.

The problem is, even if they did manage to escape, what would they even do about Tyler? Would they need to find a priest or something to perform some kind of exorcism? He didn’t know the last thing about that.

A shiver ran throughout his body. He couldn’t imagine what was going on inside his best friend right now.

Josh thought about his family. If his mother saw any of that footage, saw him getting tortured and bleeding, he could only imagine the state she would be in. Same with Tyler’s family, and their crew, and their friends...

He thought of Mark. Damn, did he miss Mark.

Never in his lifetime did Josh think this would ever happen to him. He never thought joining a band, playing shows, living life, would lead to him being  _ kidnapped _ .

All he wanted to do was go home.

There was a knock at the door then, and Josh looked over in curiosity. His entire body hurt and he could barely move, but the fact someone just knocked freaked him out a little bit.

A girl he had never seen before since being taken here appeared in the doorway. Her features were small, hair long with roots dark that faded into a light silvery grey, and she seemed genuinely caring. That was a first.

“You’re Joshua, right?” Even her voice was small. Josh nodded, eyes wide. What was going on? “My name is Jade. I’m here to help you escape.”

He stared at her for a few seconds, trying to process the words she just said. Surely that couldn’t have been what she had said. Maybe she was joking and planned on beating the shit out of him like every other person here.

“Can you speak?” she asked with a small head tilt, and Josh nodded again, clearing his throat.

“I uh, yeah. I’m just a little, uhm...”

“Surprised? Yeah, I would be too. Everyone here sucks.” She flashed him a small smile and went to get him out of his shackles. He practically collapsed into her arms, his limbs not even strong enough to hold himself up. “Woah there big guy.”

“Sorry,” he coughed out, trying to stand up on his own. She allowed him to lean on her.

“Don’t apologize. Look, I got dragged into this with no choice. They threatened to kill my family if I didn’t join.” Jade’s face fell briefly before she looked back up. “But this isn’t right. I don’t want to do this, I’ve never wanted to do this. They can’t kidnap you guys, demand ransom-”

“Summon a demon to put inside my best friend...” Josh interrupted, a twinge of sarcasm in his voice. Her face twisted into contortion.

“What?”

“You didn’t know?”

“They... uh, didn’t tell us everything. Just the people in charge. That redheaded girl, her name is Victoria, and the brunette with all her minions, Jesse, they are the ones in charge. We just follow directions. But I didn’t know... I knew they were getting involved with that stuff. I mean, I overheard stuff. Victoria was always mumbling to herself strange things about demons, and she knew entirely too much. I just didn’t think they’d actually go through with it.” She shook her head. “It makes sense now why they wanted Tyler so badly.”

“He wants to kill me. Not Tyler, I hope, but the demon. It was apparently part of the deal.”

“Well, you're not dying anytime soon, not on my watch. I’m getting you out of here and into a hospital.”

“What about Tyler? We can’t leave without him. He’s way worse than I am.”

Jade sighed. “Look, if what you said is true, if he really is possessed-”

“It’s true.” Josh was dead serious.

“Then there’s no way we can take him with us. If I can get you out, we can go to the police and tell them where the base is. Then they can come here, shut down the entire operation, and then we can get Tyler. Only problem is-”

“We won’t be able to move him without him killing at least someone.” Josh ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, yes. I understand where you’re coming from.”

“Then you know you have to get out first, right? You need to get your health back and get as far away from Tyler as possible. He isn’t Tyler anymore, okay?”

“He looks so sick,” Josh agreed, looking at the floor.

“We can take a look at the security footage before we head out. Just so I can get a read on how much time we have to save him.” She sighed again. “I’m sorry to have to do this, because I know how shredded your wrists are, but I gotta put the cuffs back on so nobody gets suspicious, okay?”

“Yeah,” Josh agreed, shifting so she could put them on. He winced as they clicked, but Jade hadn’t put them on as tight as everyone else had, and for that he was thankful.

They walked together for only a few minutes, Josh with his head down to avoid making eye contact. They only passed two people before Jade glanced around quickly and shoved Josh into the room he had been the night before. She reached for the remote and pointed it at the screen, the familiar flash of bright light flooding the room. Josh squinted briefly.

“This isn’t the main security room, but it’s the one I have access to,” Jade explained before she turned back towards the screen.

Tyler looked even worse than he had the last time Josh had seen him. Not only was he still pale with his veins dark, but his body seemed to be deteriorating as he sat there, pale skin stripped in places to reveal a heavy, clotted red underneath. It literally looked like his body was rotting. Josh had never seen his friend like that in their entire six years of friendship. He felt like screaming.

“He won’t have much time left,” Jade murmured sadly. “We need to leave tonight.”

“Wait,” Josh breathed, leaning forward. “They said Tyler was strong, that’s why the demon wanted him.”

“Tyler is strong, I’m sure, but the human body can’t handle that much energy all at once. He’s going to fall apart.”

“Even if we got him out of here... Could he survive an exorcism?”

Jade swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”

 

_ How could you sleep at a time like this _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if any of you have seen supernatural but Ty is supposed to look like how Lucifer was looking towards the end.


	12. Hømetøwn

_ Where we’re from, there’s no sun _

 

The plan was to have Jade pretend she was taking Josh up to the infirmary. The lie was that he needed to be healed before the demon could properly do his job, and most of the low life people in the building believed her. It was a foolproof plan.

Don’t get him wrong, Josh was happy he was finally getting out, but he had so much guilt for leaving his best friend behind. Even if Tyler was possessed by a demon that wanted to kill him, he still felt bad. Josh loved Tyler, and would do anything for him. That was how it had always been and how it would always be.

“Josh, he’ll be okay. The police will be back before his body gets any worse and then we can take him some place safe. I promise everything will be alright.” She swallowed nervously. “You know in planes how they always tell you to put your oxygen mask on before helping someone else? This is the same kind of thing. You understand that, don’t you?”

Josh nodded. He did understand, just... didn’t like it.

“We’ll take one of the cars out back and get the hell out of here. First stop is a hospital.”

“That’s a good idea,” Josh replied weakly. His entire body ached with severe amounts of pain and he was trying to hard not to move or burst into tears.

“I’m so sorry you hurt so bad.” her face was full of so much sympathy Josh felt safe with her. He just hoped it wouldn’t end up being a ruse.

 

He sat in a rusty old pickup truck next to Jade, his hands tucked into his lap and his eyes squeezed shut. Every goddamn time the car went over a bump, his body screamed in agony and he had to resist his urge to yell or whimper. The good thing was that he had warm clothes now. 

Josh continued to tell himself he was getting out, that everything was okay. He would be okay, Tyler would be okay, every. single. thing. would. be. okay.

Getting out of the building had been tricky. Jade had told Josh they had to get out before Victoria and Jesse realized Josh was missing, which sent the two of them into a frenzy trying to get out of the facility undetected. Luckily Jade was a really good liar, and everyone else was extremely gullible.

“We’ll be to a hospital in about fifteen minutes. Everything is gonna be okay, I promise.”

“How long have we been there?”

“A while.” Her face was stoic, eyes only looking forward. Josh swallowed hard.

“Yeah. Feels like it.”

“They’ve had this planned out for a while you know. Ever since you guys started getting more known. Victoria, she messed with that demon stuff a lot. She had a huge book full of Latin and everything. She became obsessed with you two. Knew everything there was to know, and her and that demon I guess, were best friends. This group, this cult, they’re dedicated to giving these demons homes. The demons see these people on TV, online, and think, wow. These people are strong. They know what they’re doing. That would be a good vessel for me. And I think that’s the problem with society today. Everyone lives behind a screen. They fuel power to the celebrities, and the people that intend to harm them.”

Josh didn’t know how to respond.

“They collected more members through terrible means. I told you how I joined.” She shrugged. “We live out of fear. I mean, look at your friend. He has so much fear inside of him that he spills over the edges onto paper. He’s afraid of what he’s capable of, afraid of his insecurities, of failing. He was perfect.”

“You said he was strong.”

“He is. You know Tyler better than anyone. Is he strong to you?” Josh nodded. “But he’s afraid.” Josh nodded again. “Exactly.”

“But why does he want to kill me so badly?”

“Think about Blurryface Josh. What does he represent?”

“Tyler’s insecurities.”

“Does he ever tell you stuff?”

“Well yeah, but what does that have to do with-”

“It’s a dimensional demon, created out of spite, evil, and hatred. I can almost guarantee you this demon was created partially because of Tyler. That’s why it is drawn to him. That’s why it wanted him, why it viewed Tyler as someone strong enough to hold him. That’s why it wanted you. Demons are fuelled on hatred and pain. Killing you, Tyler would never forgive himself, and the demon would be in charge for the rest of eternity. They’re immortal y’know.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Josh mumbled. He felt like crying again. It felt like all he ever did was cry.

“Tyler is gonna be okay, I told you that. I promise.”

“He’s already falling apart.”

“Like I said, that’s why we’re hurrying. As soon as we make it to the hospital, I’m dropping you off and going to the police.”

“Wait, they’ll make me stay there! I have to come with you.”

“Josh, you’re in critical condition-”

“I love him!” He practically screamed at her, one fist coming down hard on the dashboard. Jade didn’t say a word. “Please, he’s so important to me. If I lose him to a stupid fucking demon, I’ll never forgive myself. I could have stopped this. If I would have been better to him, been  _ there _ for him-”

“Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have done anything. There’s a creature of vile inside of all of us Josh, don’t you know that? We all have the ability to kill just as much as we do to create. Tyler knows that, he’s always known that, even from a young age. He just lost touch.”

Josh wanted to ask how she knew all of this, but for some reason he didn’t ask that. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all.

“Look. We’ll get you fixed up, and I’ll stay with you until then. Then we go to the police.”

“What are they going to do? What we really need is a priest or something.”

Jade sighed loudly, and then she was pulling off to the side of the road down a dirt path. Josh gripped his seat tightly, confused to what the hell was going on. They drove for almost five minutes in silence before she killed the ignition.

The car sat in darkness under a thick foliage, and it was almost so dark Josh could hardly see Jade’s face.

“I wasn’t going to tell you,” she said calmly. “But I think it would be in our best interest and in the safety of your friend.”

“What?” Josh blinked, his body shifting forward slightly. 

“I’m not who you think I am.”

_ What the hell? _

Her eyes squeezed shut, and two seconds later they opened to reveal a bright, intense blue. Josh moved back in fear, his breath catching on the way in. What the hell was going on?

The blue melted back into the normal soft blue of her eyes and she sighed once more. “I’m not a demon, if that was what you were thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

“Just let me do this.” Jade reached towards Josh with one hand and he backed as far into the window as he could, squeezing his eyes shut as her cold fingers gently rested on his forehead. Josh shivered slightly and his insides felt like they were frozen inside. He couldn’t move.

And a few seconds later she pulled away, and Josh felt nothing.

He wiggled his fingers, flexed his arms, ran a hand through his hair… and then realized he was fine. There wasn’t one bruise, cut, or scratch on his entire body. Josh opened his mouth to ask what the hell she was, but Jade held out a hand.

“I guess you could call me an angel, but not really. I’m just here to get rid of that  _ thing _ using your friend as a home.”

“Whaa…?” This couldn’t be happening.

“I wasn’t going to tell you. I’m not supposed to tell anyone I’m even here. I don’t look like this either, it’s just a vessel. Unlike that demon though, mine gave consent.”

“T-Tyler made up the demon?” Josh rubbed at his head. This had to be one terrible dream.

“Okay, I know this is confusing and scary and weird, but I’m only here to help you and Tyler, okay? And then I’m gone.”

“Right.”

“Only problem is I really am helpless against the demon itself, and because I’m not supposed to tell anyone what I really am, that’s why nothing is getting done.”

“So police.”

“Yes, and a priest I guess. Anything church related will not be good for that demon, I’m telling you that right now.”

“So we get the police to weed out the clan members, and the priest to help Tyler.”

“Right. I can confuse the demon for a few seconds and more or less knock him out to get him to an easier spot. The bed is what I’m thinking. If this does work, you have to know something Josh.”

This was so much information and so much going on at once that Josh felt like chopping off his hand. Why  _ them _ ?

“What?”

“Tyler isn’t ever going to be the same person he was. I can heal him, but I can’t heal the damage and trauma inside. And he  _ will _ remember every single thing that happened, understand?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” She smiled, teeth bright in contrast to the darkness. The engine started up again, and they were barreling down the road once more. “Let’s bring Tyler home.”

  
_ Our hometown’s in the dark _


	13. Nøt Tøday

_ I waste all this time trying to run from you _

 

Josh remembered a conversation he had with Tyler at the very beginning of the record making process. 

He came to Josh with a grim expression and barren features and Josh just  _ knew. _ It was that look Tyler got when he was so deep in his own thoughts he couldn’t be bothered to come back to reality.

“Blurryface,” he had stated, and Josh looked at him with a small tilt of his head.

“Huh?”

“He represents my insecurities, the things I hate about myself. And Josh, you know I hate most things about myself.”

“Which I still don’t understand why. If I could describe anyone as perfect it would definitely be you.”

Tyler sighed loudly, a hand running through his hair. His eyes were bloodshot with heavy, purplish bags underneath them. That made Josh nervous. “You can’t trust a perfect person Josh, and I definitely am not perfect. Just, listen to me. I want to do a concept album. You know I’ve been writing a lot.”

Oh boy did he know that.

“Here’s the thing. I want Blurry to be a thing. To be alive. You get me?” 

Josh did. 

And so be it, that left him here, on his way to contact the police with a frickin’ angel driving.

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t beyond terrified. It wasn’t the police part that scared him, no, it was the idea of going back to that horrible, horrible place, of seeing Tyler’s skin failing to do its job and to see that smirk that wasn’t even  _ his. _

“You’re in charge of finding the exorcist. The nearest church is two blocks away,” Jade said the minute they pulled into police station parking lot. Josh still had no idea where they were; it was some small town in the middle of nowhere. She reached for his hand and scribbled down an address on top of it. “Here. Tell them it’s urgent and someone’s life is on the line. Bring him here, okay? We have literally no time to waste.”

“How are you going to convince an entire police squad to follow you to that place?”

Jade flashed a smirk. “I have my ways. Now shoo.”

With a nod Josh opened the car door and watched Jade go into the police station. She turned around one last time before going in, giving Josh an encouraging smile. Then she was gone, leaving Josh alone. With a nervous swallow he looked down at the address on his hand.

Here went nothing.

 

Tyler was really good at remembering every single bad memory he ever had. He permanently stored pain and grief and sorrow and simply could not get it out of his head ever. Tyler wished he knew why that was the case, he really did. If he could forget about them, he promised he would. Tyler preferred the good memories, but most times those were shadowed by his bad ones.

Now, being trapped in his own body, Tyler wished he could be optimistic about the situation, but it was impossible, and he knew that. It felt like he was being suffocated, or chained at the bottom of a lake. He couldn’t think without that demon getting in the way, couldn’t move, couldn’t even  _ breathe. _ Tyler wondered if this was what death felt like, or being paralyzed or something. 

The worst part about this situation was what he heard. That  _ thing _ inside of him, it spoke to him. It reminded Tyler all the things he hated about himself. It told him that he was here because Tyler wanted him to be, and that he was never going to leave. It told him Josh left and was never going to come back, that Josh didn’t care about him.

Tyler didn’t know where Josh was. 

Josh could have been dead for all he knew.

Sometimes the demon would give Tyler visuals and Tyler couldn’t control whether he thought about them or not. It showed him what it would be like killing someone, what it would be like to be covered in a helpless victim’s blood. Tyler felt like crying, but of course tears never came. He was nothing more than a waste of space inside his own vessel.

Every day he felt weaker and weaker. Tyler knew he might not be around to see his rescue. Once that thing inside of him disappeared, Tyler would be long gone, leaving the police to deal with one more corpse. He wanted to put up a fight, he really did. 

Tyler could only waste so much time trying to run away.

 

Josh gulped as he looked down at his hand and back up at the heavy wooden doors of the church. He was sweating immensely as his courage finally came to him and in he went.

The church was completely empty except for one single man hunched over in his knees in the front, arms crossed and eyes squeezed shut. He was mumbling under his breath, one of his arms twitching every so often. Josh stayed quiet until the man finished, and then he cleared his throat.

The man was older, salt and pepper hair and a pair of thick, black frames. He smiled politely as Josh made his way over to him.

“Hello! How can I help you?”

“Uh, hi.” Josh was familiar with religion, being raised Christian and everything, but this was definitely a different experience. He believed this was a Catholic church. “I was hoping you could help me with a little problem.”

“Are you here to confess? I can go-”

“No no, it’s uhm, a little more serious than that.”

“Of course. We’ll go to my office.” He beckoned for Josh to follow him to a tiny room in the back of the church consisting of a desk and two chairs, one on either side. Josh slid into it, his throat clicking again as he fiddled with his too big shirt. The man stared at him with curiosity. “What’s your name brother?”

“Josh. Josh Dun.”

“It’s very nice to meet your acquaintance, Brother Dun. I’m Monsignor Darcy. Now, what is so urgent?”

“You probably won’t believe me. I mean, I didn’t even believe me.” Josh closed his eyes for a brief moment, allowing himself to breathe deeply. “My friend and I, we got kidnapped by these crazy people. And now he’s possessed.”

Silence. And then, “You were kidnapped?”

“Yes. That’s not the important part though. The police are already involved. But Monsignor, I really need your help. My friend is possessed by a demon and we need to get this creature out of him. Can you do that?”

The Monsignor continued to stare at him. 

“I know it sounds crazy, but I know that’s not my friend. His eyes are bright red and his body is falling apart and sir, we have to do something. Please trust me. I have no one else to turn too.”

He sighed loudly, reaching for a pen to scribble down some things Josh couldn’t see from where he was sitting. “I believe you Brother, it’s just that exorcisms are not easy. I’ve only performed one two other times and neither time did the human survive. Surviving an exorcism is very difficult for the human soul, you know this, right?”

Josh knew perfectly well, he just wanted to deny this information.

“It’s not a legit demon, like from hell or whatever. It’s a dimensional demon, created out of the spite and hatred of humanity, but mostly from the hatred of my friend. He’s strong, but scared.”

The Monsignor smiled sadly. “My dearest Brother, evil comes in many ways. And we  _ will _ get through this. I’ll need to call my companion and inform him. I can’t promise if he will survive, but we’ll try our hardest to help him out. I won’t let one more soul be punished to eternal damnation.”

Josh wasn’t sure why, but he started crying. His entire body shook like an earthquake and tears flowed like waterfalls and all he could think of was Tyler. He knew Tyler would probably not survive. His chances were lower than low, and Josh knew Tyler was going to no longer be with him.

Warmth spread throughout his body when the Monsignor wrapped his steady arms around him and told him it was going to be alright, that even if Tyler did pass, his soul would be saved, and that pitiful creature would be banished back to hell.

Josh didn’t want Tyler to leave him.

 

_ But I am out of my mind _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not very familiar with anything religious so I apologize if things aren't the most accurate.


	14. Gøner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a lot guys. Please be careful.

_ I’ve got two faces _

 

It must have been interesting to see a squad of police cars being followed by a rusty pickup truck and a sleek, black Kia Optima. It kind of sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. A police squad, two priests, an angel and a drummer walk into a bar... 

Jade was extremely focused as she drove, eyes not leaving the back of the cop car in front of her. Josh tapped on his leg nervously and stared out the window at the passing trees. He was happy this was happening, that they were going to be able to shut this horrible place down and Tyler was going to be saved, but at the same time, he didn’t want to be there to watch Tyler struggle. He  _ knew _ Tyler was crumbling.

It might be too late.

“Stop it,” Jade suddenly blurted out, and Josh was flipping back around to face her. He swallowed loudly.

“What?”

“You’re thinking negatively over there. I can feel it. Stop it.”

“I’m just-”

“I know you are Josh, I know. It’s scary thinking about what we’re about to do, but you can’t think about the bad stuff.”

He didn’t bother to reply.

 

They stayed in the car once it was parked in front of the building. Josh was looking at the decaying chapel, thinking about the time Tyler spent in there. That was when they put that monster inside him.

The police were inside right now. All the cars were piled outside, lights flashing and sirens wailing, with a few remaining outside with guns in their hands. They were waiting for the okay.

“How did you get the police to come with us?”

Jade smiled softly. “Like I said, I have my ways.”

“Do you think we should move him to the chapel? Would that help the monsignor? I mean, that  _ is _ where the demon was invited in.”

“The place of entrance is the place of dismissal.” Her voice was quiet as she thought it through. “That’s genius.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to be there.” Josh began picking at his nails even though they were short and bitten to hell. He was really only doing it to avoid facing Jade. 

“You have to be there with him J. Tyler is still in there, and he needs you.”

“But he’s going to die,” Josh whispered, tears beginning to burn at his eyelids.

This time, it was Jade who did not speak.

Neither said a single thing the rest of the time spent waiting, instead occupying their time by watching the building, staring at nothing, or tapping on the dashboard. Josh’s stomach was churning and he felt like he might throw up any second. He didn’t know how much longer he could wait to see Tyler die.

And suddenly, all hell broke loose. Jade slumped in her seat, eyelids fluttering shut as a small breath of air passed from her lips. Gunshots came from inside, then there was screaming, and Josh was trying to shake Jade back awake. He didn’t know what was going on.

Josh did recognize some of the girls being pulled out in handcuffs. They were angry, fighting against restraints as they were shoved into the back of a police cruiser. There were a few more gunshots, and a shiver ran down his spine. People were dying in there.

He finally opened the door and stumbled onto the asphalt, leaning against the car to catch his breath before dashing to the car holding Monsignor Darcy and his companion, Father Johnson. Things were not good.

Monsignor rolled down the window, his face set into a sympathetic frown. “What’s wrong?”

“People are dying in there. Can’t you hear the gunshots?”

The two men shared a glance, but did not reply to Josh’s statement. Monsignor sighed loudly, rubbing his temples. “Do you know where your friend is?”

“He’s down in the basement. Jade, she was supposed to take us, but she passed out in the driver’s seat and I don’t know what’s wrong. She’s breathing, but-”

“Let me take a look,” offered the Father, and Josh nodded his head, watching him exit the car. They quietly walked back to the pickup truck where Josh opened the driver side door and made room for him.

Father Johnson closed his eyes, two of his fingers pressed against Jade’s neck. She didn’t look peaceful either; it was a sleep of pain and suffering and god knows what else. Josh wondered if something was wrong with the vessel or the angel herself. Then he realized that neither the Father nor the Monsignor knew Jade was an angel.

He was quiet for almost a minute, Josh tapping his foot nervously with his arms wrapped around himself as he tried to forget the craziness going on behind him. And then he was gasping loudly, tripping backwards over his own feet as Jade sat up quickly, her eyes glowing a celestial blue. She was breathing heavily, one hand clasped over her chest.

Jade and Josh met each other’s eyes, and with a shaky breath, she spoke, low and serious.

“It’s time.”

 

Three sat in the broken pews of the church, waiting. The Monsignor stared at his nice dress shoes, Josh tapped on his leg and Father Johnson was mumbling prayer under his breath. This whole situation was one big nightmare. Josh wished it was one.

Jade had promised to return with Tyler in fifteen minutes. She still had to get inside the building, avoid the corpses and paramedics and police, deal with the demon and get back to the chapel. She said she had to do it alone.

Even if he was invited along, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it. Josh was already an anxious mess sitting here waiting. He didn’t want to face Tyler again, didn’t want to see how broken and a mess he was and definitely didn’t want to listen to that demon spit out insults and venomous words.

The awkward silence in the room wasn’t helping either.

“Monsignor?” he asked quietly, stopping his tapping. Darcy looked over at Josh, peering at him over the top of his glasses.

“Yes Brother?”

“I’m scared. Terrified actually. You know, I never thought my best friend would be possessed and I never thought I’d be sitting here waiting to watch an exorcism be performed.”

He sighed. “My dear Brother, my companion and I have done this before. We will try our hardest, I promise. We sadly won’t be able to determine odds until we see him.”

“I’ve seen  _ The Exorcist _ . What if Tyler looks like that? I can’t-”

“It doesn’t help to think that like. You just need to take a deep breath and clear your mind.”

“Clear my mind. Right.” Deep breaths followed, and Josh closed his eyes and pushed back into the broken pew he currently sat in. He tried to convince himself everything was going to be alright.

 

Fifteen minutes passed. And then twenty. And then thirty-five, and Josh was pretty sure he might explode soon.

But then, the doors were thrown open, the bang echoing across the hall, and Jade was moving quickly, cradling a broken man in her arms. She pushed him down into a chair (the one Josh assumed Tyler had been strapped previously) and handcuffed him to it. Josh’s eyes were wide as he took in his friend.

Tyler was unrecognizable. 

His hair stuck to his forehead in greasy clumps and his skin was more red muscle than actual skin. Eyes were sunken in and the parts that were skin were sickly pale. Hands were cracked and scaly, fingernails long with dirt and blood caked underneath them.

Josh was beginning to hyperventilate.

The Monsignor softly laid a hand on his shoulder. “We might be able to save him.”

“He’s too far gone,” tears were streaming down Josh’s face. He wanted to turn around and punch a wall, any wall, in this goddamn place.

“Clear your mind,” he repeated once more before leaving to approach Jade, Father Johnson trailing behind him. Josh stayed in the pew, eyes squeezed shut as he focused on catching his breath and clearing his mind. Jade was painting something around the chair with red paint, using her fingers to construct some weird symbol. The Monsignor and Father seemed to realize what it was immediately. 

“A devil’s trap,” whispered the Monsignor, and Jade nodded.

“That’s a very powerful demon inside of him. It’s going to take a lot of coaxing and hard work to get it out. Tyler has some dark insecurities lurking around in there.”

“So you’re an angel then,” Father commented out of context, his thick eyebrows furrowed together. “Amazing.”

“An actual warrior of God,” mumbled the Monsignor and Jade rolled her eyes.

“Focus my brothers, focus. We are dealing with a human life here. The evil is churning inside him. It won’t be very long before he’s awake.”

And almost on cue, Tyler woke up in a heavy gasp for air, his red eyes blood shot. He cocked his head as a smirk rose to his tattered face. “Hey you bitch, it wasn't very nice to kidnap me from my home. But I'll forgive you since you brought me toys.”

The Monsignor was stiff, his face a ghostly pale. Evil seemed to be radiating throughout the room.

“How you feeling?” Jade asked sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at the demon. Tyler rolled his eyes.

“I’m feeling just great. Don’t know about your buddy though.” Horrible laughter erupted from his mouth, and Josh placed his hands over his ears.

_ It’s almost over. It’s almost over, just be brave, be strong, and know Tyler is in there. _

“We’re sending you back to hell you son of a bitch,” Jade snarled, her eyes glowing blue again. The priests were still frozen to the spot.

Tyler cackled again. “Oh  _ please, _ a warrior of God sent to put a simple demon back in its place.”

“We all know you aren’t a simple demon.”

“You’re right. I’m Tyguy’s demon.” he grinned. “Tyler isn’t home right now. Come back and visit later.”

Jade growled, stepping back to configure with the priests. Josh caught her eye, and gulped when she waved him over. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Tyler.

His legs felt like jelly as he made his way over, the hairs on the back of his neck rising in fear. Jade rested a hand on the small of his back in comfort.

“Are you guys ready?”

A deep breath and two simple nods. “Ready as we’ll ever be.”

Tyler was giggling again, his hands pulling at the cuffs restraining him. His movements were sharp and quick and not human. “A real life exorcism. Ooh. I can’t wait.”

Jade ignored him and gestured for the priests to take over. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”

“Hey Joshie, we never did get to our arrangement, did we? What a shame that is.”

“Ignore him Josh.” Jade warned, resting a hand on his shoulder. Josh continued to stare.

“Oh, I know what you want to do to Tyler Joshie boy, I can see deep down inside and it’s naughty.” Another round of deep, mocking laughter echoed throughout the hall. “You wanna fuck him, don’t you?”

The Monsignor gripped the cross strung around his neck tightly in his hands, pointing it towards Tyler as he began to speak. “ _ Regna terrae, cantata Deo, psallite Cernunnos... _ ”

Tyler’s veins were already beginning to bulge across his sickly skin. The demon laughed once more, thrashing around in the chair. “You’re a little  _ whore _ Joshie, aren’t you? Gonna go around and FUCK EVERYONE, AREN’T YOU?”

“ _ Humiliter majestati gloriae tuae supplicamus Ut ab omni infernalium spirituum potestate, _ ”

Tyler started screaming loudly, filling in the gaps with booming laughter. His veins were black now, red eyes redder than they ever had been. Josh was frozen to the spot. He wanted this to be over, it was too much, Tyler was going to die, what was he going to do?

“And  **_yOU_ ** Monsignor,” he snarled, “helping a little  **_bOy_ ** save his  **_fRiEnD?_ ** How pathetic.”

“ _ Exorcizamus you omnis immundus spiritus Omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio, _ ”

He screamed again, wrists bleeding where they had been scraped against skin. He began banging his head against the back of the chair.

“How pathetic are ALL OF YOU FUCKERS?” There was another round of malice entitled laughter, and then Tyler’s eyes were rolling to the back of his head. His body slumped backwards, shaking like he was almost having a seizure. Jade threw her hands forward, moving away from Josh to get closer to the priests still chanting.

“Don’t stop!” She yelled with a wave of her hand. “It’s working!”

“ _ Ut inimicos sanctae circulae humiliare digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos! _ ”

The doors to the chapel flew open, a gust of wind stirring leaves and debris around the room. Josh swallowed nervously, shielding his face from all the dust.

Tyler was back once more, dead set on doing nothing but causing trouble. “Oh, shove it up your ass  **_faThER._ ** ”

The wind died down for a few seconds, and Josh was staring. Staring at the creature his friend had become.

“The only person worse than you is Tyler himself,” he cackled, throwing his head back as another fit came over him. Josh wondered how much farther they needed to go with this. “He’s a murder. He belongs in an iSaNE ASYlum.”

His fists were clenched by his side.  _ The demon’s a liar. Don’t listen to him. _

“ _ Terribilis Deus Sanctuario suo, Cernunnos ipse truderit virtutem plebi Suae, _ ”

“He’s the most worthless piece of shit I’ve ever met.”

“FUCK YOU!” Josh screamed, anger overcoming his patience. He threw his fists out, focusing on beating that stupid fucking thing inside of Tyler to death. One foot inside the devil’s trap and Josh was being thrown across the room, his back slamming into the wall. With a groan he tried to stand up, failing in the process.

“Evil lurking inside this man, I cast you BACK TO HELL!” the Monsignor thrust his cross into the trap, the necklace landing on Tyler’s lap. With one last cackle Tyler began screaming again, his head thrown back as his eyes once again rolled to the back of his head. With a loud gasp his mouth opened and a thick, black smoke pooled out of it, sinking into the floor like mist. Josh rubbed at his face and noticed tears were pooling down his cheeks. He struggled to find purchase on the rough floor, ignoring the fire in his muscles as he made his way back up the the front of the chapel. The Monsignor was on his knees, sweat perspiring on his forehead as he began praying loudly. Father was next to him, his hand gently resting on the small of the Monsignor’s back in comfort.

Tyler’s head hung limp like the rest of his body, veins still black against his skin. Purplish bruises were starting to form all over his body right around the reddish muscle areas, and black foam pooled from his mouth. Josh was choking on air.

“Hey hey,” Jade cooed, grabbing Josh before he could tumble to the floor. “It’s okay, everything is over now. That son of a bitch is gone.”

“Check his pulse,” Josh tried, but his sobbing made it almost incoherent. Solemnly, Jade let go and stepped cautiously into the trap, laying two fingers in the crook of Tyler’s neck. With a sigh, she uncuffed his raw wrists and curled him in her arms.

“Get him to the paramedics.  _ Now. _ ”

  
_ Blurry’s the one I’m  _ **_not_ **


	15. Afterwards

His body jolted upwards with each electric shock, yet, nothing happened.

Josh wondered how long he’d been dead.

Jade told him she had to leave. Her job was done, even though Tyler’s soul had been long gone.

“He’s saved now,” she promised. “He has a nice place up there in heaven. I’ll tell him-”

“It doesn’t matter what you tell him.” Josh’s face was permanently stained with tears and his voice was so hoarse it hurt to talk. Tyler was dead and he had to see his body deteriorate.

Nothing. Mattered. Anymore.

Josh’s life was over. The band was over. His relationship with everyone was over.

He didn’t even need to be alive anymore.

Jade hugged him, but he couldn’t feel her touch. And just like that, she was gone.

The story about their kidnapping was all over the news. Tyler’s death was all over the news. Josh felt bad for the police officers who had to inform the Joseph family their son was dead after having him missing for so long.

 

A year later and Josh was a greasy, rude alcoholic. He never left his apartment, his couch was covered in beer cans and the TV was only ever white noise. Josh swore he was going insane.

He had a rope tied as a noose in his closet. He thought about doing it every single day, ever since it was declared that Tyler was nothing but a deceased corpse rotting six feet under the ground.

Josh ignored contact from everyone. He refused to speak with his friends, with his family, even about work. He hadn’t played drums in god knows how long and honestly believed he had forgotten how to in the first place.

Nothing mattered.

It was a Thursday afternoon when there was a knock on his apartment door. Josh ignored it. It was nobody.

But the person opened the door anyways and marched into the living room, clearing a spot on the couch to sit down. Josh stared at the static on the television screen.

“Josh.”

He didn’t recognize this man. It was a younger guy with dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a gentle, warm smile.

“Hey man. It’s me.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Josh was growling, turning around to face this unnamed man. How had he made his way into his house? Who the fuck did he think he was?

“It’s me Josh. It’s Tyler.”

His body felt numb. Fingertips burned and his ears were ringing and all he could think of was Tyler’s dead body rotting away. “You’re not Tyler.”

“I am, I promise. I’m in a vessel right now, considering I can’t quite use my own body, can I?” he chuckled. “Vessel. How ironic.”

Josh didn’t know what to say. The man didn’t look like Tyler, he certainly didn’t  _ sound _ like Tyler, but somehow, he felt like Tyler. Josh reached for his hand.

“Ty?”

“It’s me Jishwa, I promise. It’s me.” It was a crinkly at the corners smile with dimples and warm laughter and Josh burst into tears as he gripped his friend tightly.

“I miss you so much,” he sobbed into his shoulder and Tyler petted his hair.

“I miss you too. You have no idea how much I miss you. I see what you’re up too and it makes me so sad. Josh, what happened?”

“I can’t live without you,” he whispered, clutching Tyler’s shoulder.

“You can babe, I know you can. You have to be strong Josh. I need you to get your life back together. Stop drinking, stop avoiding people, open the blinds and get some sunlight and start playing the drums again. You can’t let me not being here destroy your life.”

“What am I supposed to do Ty? The band is over.”

“The band doesn’t need to be over. You have so much talent. It wasn’t just me.”

“I-”

“I was sent here for a reason Jish. I’m supposed to help get you back on your feet. You should see heaven sometime man, it’s awesome.” He grinned. “They made me an honorary member of God’s crew. Kind of like your buddy Jade. She talked to me about you. Said you did everything you could to save me. Thank you for that by the way. But yeah, I’m not going anywhere until you’re back on your feet.”

“That could take a while.”

“Exactly.” Tyler continued to grin, and suddenly it clicked. 

Tyler wasn’t going anywhere.

Josh went back to gripping him tightly, another round of tears sliding down his cheeks. “I love you Tyler.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May not have been the happy ending you were looking for, but it's something, right? Maybe?


End file.
